There's Nothing Left in this World but Hope
by Rapture-Taylore
Summary: AU. Set in a world where Fire Country is ruled under Danzo and people are forced into a hopeless situation. This follows Sakura as she finds herself in this troubled time finding hope, friends, something to fight for and a little bit of love on the way.
1. Chapter 1

**A little bit of history - Key events and information.**

**25 years before the Emperor's reign –** A small group is founded in opposition of the supposedly wishy-washy principles of the current ruler the Hokage Harashima Senju. Calling themselves ROOT, they believe that the rot in the country have to be cut out at its source, and have a rather interesting analogy about a tree and root decay. ROOT are largely ignored by the population as Fire Country is currently enjoying its tenth year of prosperity and as far as everyone is concerned things have never been better.

**20 years prior –** Problems within Fire Country as unemployment begins to increase and, despite new initiatives brought in by Senju, unemployment and discontent only increases. By the end of the year one in five people are unemployed.

**18 years –** Death of Harashima Senju and is succeeded by his brother, Tobirama, this fuels recent accusations that the current leadership is not as democratic as they claim as the title of Hokage was passed through a family line rather than "the correct person". ROOT are one of the leading protest groups and gain widespread attention. A young man by the name of Danzo joins during the heat of these protests.

**17 years -** Danzo impresses the leadership of ROOT and gains a position of authority within the party. He is respected, looked up to and this first taste of power makes him aware of how 'weak' the current leadership is in Fire Country and in ROOT itself. Danzo is able to create his own powerbase within ROOT away from the real party leadership, they are loyal to him alone out of ROOT.

**14 years –** Under much external pressure the second Hokage resigns his role, leaving the governing of Fire Country to a select committee, this is meant to be a temporary measure but no real leader is found. There are a number of small groups, including ROOT, that are gaining popularity but none of them are considered suitable, or have enough support to have a majority government while arguments amongst these groups mean that a coalition would be impossible.

**12 years –** Danzo is elected leader of ROOT and successfully gets rid of his competition within the party. He is left with a large group who are loyal to his ideas with no internal opposition so he is able to assert his authority within ROOT and starts trying to recruit more members, using the ineffectiveness of the Senju family and promises of a better life with ROOT to almost double membership within the year.

**9 years –**Widespread belief that the Committee are unable to govern properly. Mass protests in the street calling for proper leadership as conditions within Fire Country deteriorates. Shortages of food, clothing, and mass unemployment lead to more discontent.

A mass protest in October forces the Government to order the army to step in and crush the protests. Although they have been used before to prevent these kinds of uprisings in the past two years this time the army refuses to take action and say they no longer recognise the Committee as in charge. Fire Country begins to fall apart and a small area under the leadership of a prominent rebel figure Gato cedes from Fire Country and call themselves the Land of Waves due to its ties to the coast.

**8 Years –** Attempts to negotiate and recapture Wave ultimately fail over the course of this year and on the boarder of the two countries there is a blockade set up so no one can pass from Wave into Fire Country and visa versa, those unfortunate enough to have family trapped on either side of the barricades lose all contact with each other as no communication is allowed. Guard posts are built and small skirmishes happen either side of the boarder to prevent either side from gaining any ground.

**7 Years –** Fire Country is facing much external threat from its neighbours who are expanding their armies and 'practising' military manoeuvres near their borders.

**5 Years –** Danzo militarises ROOT, all members swear an oath of loyalty to him, breaking it is punishable within the "laws" the party holds.

**4 Years-** ROOT begins mass protests against the Committee which are positively received across the country, they gain wide support across the towns and country.

**2 Years -** Mounting pressure from ROOT and other extremist groups causes the current leader of the Committee (name) to resign. Due to much disagreement within the Committee about whether to invite the more radical groups within Fire Country to help govern a weak leader is appointed. He is effectively a puppet for the rest of the Committee and does not offer any direction or leadership to help shape the group. He is in charge by name alone and hold no real power.

**1 Year –** Under much stress and both internal and external pressure on the country the Committee invite Danzo to join their group in joint leadership of Fire Country. Danzo refuses, seeing it as a sinking ship he refuses to go down with.

By the end of the year Danzo is calling for the Committee to be dissolved and for Konoha to be governed by a single, strong leader. This idea had mass appeal across the country and ROOT is widely supported across the country believing that they will bring a better life so Danzo is considered the ideal leader in the minds of many.

**Ascension of Danzo as leader of Fire Country**. There is widespread panic in the capital as ROOT members stage a march through the city in celebration of Danzo's appointment. 14 people die are crushed as people flee the demonstrations.

Danzo stages an enquiry into the event and makes a statement that this was not the result of ROOT members but their opposition who tried to overthrow him. He publically executes a group of 4 people who he claims are the ringleaders. None of them were actual members of ROOT. Those that did march on that day were in fact rewarded for their loyalty.

Rearmament programs begin.

**2****nd**** Year –** After an attack on the Land of Waves the land if annexed back into Fire Country after a plebiscite is held with the majority voting in favour of being part of Fire Country again. Details of Gato's oppressive reign is widely spread amongst the population of Fire Country painting Danzo as someone who freed these people from his tyranny. Public support in Fire Country is still widely behind Danzo and ROOT.

**3****rd**** Year –** ANBU are formed as a special police body to protect the citizens of Fire Country and there is a crack down on civil rights and liberties for the "protection" of the citizens of Fire Country. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Expression and the right to assembly is suspended to prevent any organised opposition. Any discontent is well hidden as no one openly objects to these measures, there is still a belief that this is all for the best and once the rebels are defeated these measures would be lifted.

Four months later privacy of correspondence ends as the government enables itself to open people private mail, the reason for this given is to intercept any rebel communication.

After a small printer spreads leaflets joking about a new act suppressing "Freedom of Thought" and a caricature of Danzo arresting a child for not thinking in the proper manner. Freedom of Press is suspended those associated with that press were rounded up and arrested. After two years their names disappear from the records of prison logs. They are presumed dead but no body or evidence to support this is ever found.

These measures are harder to enforce in areas away from the capital where resources are spread too thinly and as a response to the Printer's Crisis, the Resistance is born as a small group who started off leafleting against Danzo's regime, their opposition only grows bolder from there.

**4****th**** Year –** Fearing for their lives Harashima and Tobirama Senju's relations flee to the country where Danzo has not fully seized absolute control. Among them is his 17 year old niece.

ANBU now are charged with protecting the country from interior elements, such as the threat or revolution or civil war. Any remaining opposition to ROOT are crushed in the first 4 months or forced to move underground, severely restricting their movements.

**5****th**** Year –** Due to the increasing responsibilities of ANBU smaller policing bodies are formed in Akatsuki ,who are official in charge of suppressing unwanted elements in the regime and unofficially in charge of torture and interrogation , and the new Police Corp, who are in charge of the new prisons.

**6****th**** Year –** The Resistance stage a raid against a prison in Tanzaku this attempt fails and all members of the Resistance are either shot or imprisoned. This is held up as an example of anarchy and as a real life threat to the people, justifying the measures Danzo has put in place.

**7****th**** Year –** Amendments made to Fire Country's protection laws so citizens no longer have the right to know the reason for their arrests and no longer have the right to be freed if arrested unjustly, any government official can enter a person's home even without probable cause.

Normal trials are suspended die to the sudden surge of "rebel activity", which was a response to the loss of their comrades at Tanzaku. People are no longer entitles to a defence and sedition and even the smallest acts of rebellion are punishable by death or life imprisonment. Those arrested are judged by a specially assembled court of ROOT members. This leads to over 5000 arrests in this year alone. Over half of those detained never returned.

**9****th**** Year –** Mass increase in industrial output with a focus on weaponry being churned out of factories in Konoha, this creates full employment for the first time in over fifteen years so people are happy to look the other way and ignore rumours of the darker parts of Danzo's reign.

**10****th**** Year –** Rumours of the Senju family planning a coup which would lead to them reclaimingpower in Fire Country and overthrowing Danzo. People loudly proclaim their support of this but any overt support of the Senju's return to power ends when Sarutobi, the Senju's protégé, is murdered and his body is displayed in the central plaza of the capital.

**11****th**** Year –** Naruto is born. Fire Country declared war on Sand, in a completely unpredicted turn of events Sand is overrun by Fire Country's armies and are pushed back into defensive positions within the first few months. By the end of the year all loyal forces in Sand are trapped in the capital which acts as a good stronghold. Neither side gains any ground either way.

**12****th**** Year –** Sakura is born. Despite multiple rumours of an extensive uprising across the country the Resistance is quiet, it is assumed that their efforts have moved completely underground and leaflets are found scattered and slogans painted on the wall that are attributed to its members but there are no prominent victories on the side of ANBU or the Resistance.

**13****th**** Year- **Naruto's parents disappear one night, he is left with an older couple with no children who raise him over the years. There had been no sightings of ANBU or visible reason for why they vanished. No one knows what happened to them.

**15****th**** Year –** A sudden mass of ANBU reports claim that the Resistance is spreading at an alarming rate. In July the Resistance manages to successfully kill an ANBU team, despite attempts to quash the rumours the Resistance gains more credence and ANBU are given a special directive to suppress all rebellion by any means necessary.

**17****th**** Year –** Under new orders ANBU conducts a vicious purging of all towns and cities, whole families disappear under suspicion of Resistance involvement and the number of political prisoners double. This dramatically curbs and efforts the Resistance can make to recruit and take action against Danzo as more and more people are persuaded to be informants to gain momentary protection.

**21st Year –** The Village of Konoha faces its first official raid as ANBU spend a few days investigating the villages loyalty to the Emperor and interrogating the villagers. One family disappears in the night and everyone is guiltily relieved that more damage wasn't done.

**25****th**** Year –**A prominent member of the Resistance, known as Anko, manages to find work in one on Fire Country's factories and sabotages the machinery used to manufacture armaments. This leads to an ANBU raid on the factory and Anko destroys one of the boilers, creating an explosion that kills her and the entire ANBU troop. She is held up as a hero and martyr by the Resistance, reportedly laughing all the way to her death, and she is celebrated and mourned every year on the anniversary of her death.

**28****h**** Year –** Movement between towns and the country becomes limited. Work visas are introduced in factories to monitor workers and to prevent the Resistance from entering as workers and sabotaging factory work.

**31****st**** Year -** Our story begins.


	2. Chapter 2

The day a body appeared on the edge of the village was the day Sakura's life changed.

Granted it changed more lives than just hers, particularly having an impact on the sad, dark shape left in the snow whose life and future had been ended so abruptly. Everyone that witnessed it felt that, at last, some change coming to the quiet village that had been largely untouched by the strife and civil unrest the rest of the country had suffered from. And it was not a good feeling; it was a more ominous sick feeling in the pit of the villagers' stomach that something incredibly bad was now coming. This was just a sign of something new and terrible coming upon them.

They knew they had been lucky, having not been frequently subjected to housing armed men, raids on food supplies and fights but they had heard stories and witnessed a few so called "incidents". Many believed that this would mark some sort of change, one that probably wasn't for the better. Trouble was coming to Konoha whether they wanted it or not.

It had been snowing for weeks, and the sudden arrival of a dark shadow by the village square was as unexpected as seeing the all powerful Emperor, ruler of all Fire country, walking through the village.

It was this shadow that changed everything. The person was frozen surrounded by a large stain of red on the snow covered ground. They were unmistakably;

"Dead." The doctor proclaimed wiping their hands. As if they needed an expert to declare such a thing. It was apparent to the whole village that had crowded round to see in the early hours of the morning. No one could bleed that much and still be alive, especially after what seemed to be a night on the ice.

After this announcement people started to move away to discuss this mystery back in the warm. There were large clouds rolling in across the sky and the villagers guessed that they were in for another storm. It was best to stay indoors and bolt the windows and door to guard against the cold.

Sakura stood there for a while longer looking at the dark colour of blood compared to the crisp white snow. She edged towards the body, the corpse, she thought as she moved closer. There was a corpse in her village.

She looked down at it puzzled, the puddle of blood had frozen with the snow and she could see a hand that had turned numb and blue with cold, there were so many colours but nothing could be used to properly describe the scene in front of her. The sad, dark figure covered in snow.

A crunch of footsteps in the snow behind her made Sakura turn, she saw Naruto walk up behind her, his hands buried in his pockets for warmth against the cold winter air.

"Poor bugger, who do you think they were?" Naruto said, his breathe suspended in clouds in front of their faces. Sakura shook her head slightly and stepped back to join her friend.

Despite being a year older than her she had always grown up in Naruto's company. They lived on the same street, had played together, gone to school together and Sakura found herself being able to talk to Naruto easier than the girls her age and it had always been just the two of them.

"He at least needs something," Naruto said softly. "Dying alone out here would be terrible." Sakura nodded. Naruto's thoughtfulness always managed to touch her; he had very little possessions and no family, they had been taken away in an early raid that touched their village, but he often gave food and belonging to other people who were worse off than him, or if anything, people who felt their poverty more.

"In that case," Sakura knelt down next to the body, "I don't know who you are or even if you had any family, a wife or even children." Sakura paused and Naruto crouched down in the red-stained snow next to her. "All I want to say is that-"

She trailed off, her words caught in her throat, choking her; she looked at Naruto unable to speak with her eyes bright with unshed tears.

"We want you to know that," Naruto hesitated as well and glanced at Sakura, who nodded slightly to reassure him. "You're not alone and that we'll remember you." Sakura's fingers traced words into the snow before they stood up and left the body as the others had done before them.

"Is it enough?" Sakura asked as they moved away, Naruto smiled at her, large flakes of snow began to fall again.

"It's all we could do." He replied. With their back to the body they didn't see the two shapes who approached it, their thick cloaks pulled tight around their bodies to ward off the cold and their hoods cast shadows over their faces.

The two figures stopped by the body and looked down on it in silence as they took it all in.

"That's another one gone then." One said finally, their companion stayed silent and went to walk round the body. There was a small movement beneath the hood as they looked down at the snow they had almost trod on, words written into the snow were still visible through the slight snowfall that was still falling and he could read what was written; the date and three words "Rest in Peace", their companion started talking again.

"We need to get rid of the body Uchiha."

"I know," They replied.

"Has anyone seen it do you think?" The first person asked.

"No." Uchiha replied stepping onto the message to cover it with his foot prints. He knew what would have to be done to the person who had innocently written this message and didn't wish it to happen. Luckily, the snow had covered up the shallow foot prints leading away from the body and there were no other signs that it had been tampered with so the two men lifted the body onto a dark cloth and proceeded to scrape up the blood-stained snow removing all traces of the body.

The person referred to as Uchiha picked up the snow that previously held the message and added that to the cloth before they wrapped up the body. It was unusually sentimental of him but even he could see that it was a pitiful end to be way out here with no one even knowing your name or purpose.

"The resistance is spreading." His companion commented, "And they're getting more organised."

"It's to be expected," Uchiha said quietly. "There's a lot of unhappiness out here, no one in the cities care about what happens in the country." He frowned slightly as he saw a glint of silver in the snow. After glancing at his companion to check that his attention was elsewhere Uchiha gently picked it up. He examined the necklace in his hand; it was on a long silver chain with a flower made of the same metal hanging off it, a cherry blossom if his knowledge of botany was any good.

"That could be considered treason Uchiha," Their companion said.

"Then I'm lucky you aren't going to turn me in right?" Uchiha said and the other man shook their head slightly.

"Right. If I did that I'd get a new partner and they'd probably be too enthusiastic for me."

"If that happened you'd kill them off in a matter of days." Uchiha said wryly tucking the necklace into his pocket. It was a strange item for the resistance member to have but nevertheless he couldn't leave it there, the body had to vanish without a trace.

"There's nothing to be enthusiastic about anyway." Their partner said flatly, "they've changed ANBU too much, what good are we now?"

"We keep the peace."

"That's a text book answer Uchiha." Their companion said scathingly as they picked up the body between them and moved off towards some horses "It's not like people are rioting or calling for a revolution."

"No. Not anymore." Uchiha said firmly signifying an end to their conversation. They both knew the penalties for criticising the regime and had no wish to incur them, even if they thought it was just the two of them out here they both knew it was best to err on the side of caution. Careless conversations got people killed.

The snow was falling faster now, the thick flakes were starting to obscure the two men's vision.

"Let's go." One of them said, "before we get lost in a storm".

The two dark figures melted away back into the snow, leaving the village in a state of confusion of how that body came to just vanish without a trace. It was almost as if it had never been there in the first place and the presence of the two men who had taken it went unnoticed.

As she walked with Naruto back to her home Sakura absentmindedly reached up to her neck to feel for the chain of her necklace. She always fiddled with it when she was anxious and the sudden appearance of a body in her village made her more worried than she'd like to admit. She froze suddenly and she couldn't feel the thin chain around her throat.

"Naruto." She said softly, but the panic was evident in her voice, that necklace meant everything to her. It was a family heirloom, passed down from her mother's side. Naruto half turned to look at her, the snow was falling thicker now and soon they should get inside for shelter. "I've lost my necklace," She continued. "It must have been-" She broke off but Naruto nodded in understanding.

"Let's go back then," He said firmly. "If we hurry it should be alright."

They dashed back to the edge of the village, Sakura running out in front eager to find her necklace and hoping that the snow hadn't completely buried it, for the third time that day she was struck dumb.

"It's gone."

"What the necklace?" Naruto said catching up with her, "I'm sure if we rummage in the snow we could-"

"No." Sakura said, interrupting him, she stepped aside to allow Naruto to see the large expanse of white in front of them. "Everything, even the body, it's gone."

Naruto stared there wasn't even a lump of snow, or a hint that the body had been buried by the white flakes. The ground was flat and clear and no trace of the body or blood was to be found, the area where it had been was completely smoothed over.

He swallowed, feeling uneasy about the whole thing. No one had been out of their houses and anyway no one in the village would clear away the body when they knew the storm was coming, and there was the priest to fetch as well anyway for the last rights, the whole ceremony and in this tiny village he was sure that everyone would want to turn up at the unknown man's funeral to be nosy anyway.

"I think," He said slowly, "We should go back now." Sakura looked like she was about to protest so he took her arm and started to drag her away. "We haven't seen anything Sakura," He said firmly. "There was never a body here and it certainly didn't disappear, you've heard the rumours, if we get involved in this we could disappear next."


	3. Chapter 3

The snow kept falling. Large flakes drifting aimlessly downwards as they were carried across on odd breezes before settling and covering trees and houses in a thick white layer. It fell heavily across parts of the country, turning the city streets to slush as people tried to make their way home through the churned up mud and ash that had been belched thickly from the chimneys of the factories as people changed shifts moving from night to day.

In the village of Konoha people sheltered in their houses as the snow made the roofs creak softly under its weight. Sakura and Naruto sat hunched together with her family by the fire trying to keep warm as some snow fell through previously unnoticed holes in the wood of the roof with a wet thump. Something that had made Sakura's mother mutter to herself as she moved to get some pots to strategically place under the gaps in the roof to catch the snow, Sakura's dad had suppressed a small smile at that.

Sakura sat huddled up next to Naruto as she watched her parents, they seemed so calm, so normal and she knew it wouldn't take long for that to change. Once the snow cleared people would venture out again and find that the body had gone. Then there would be an unspoken consensus to never talk about what happened, what they had all seen, and then there was a good chance that some strangers would come to the village and maybe even take someone away with them.

Sakura wondered what her parents would do, what they'd think when they realised that the man's body had gone, would they try to talk to each other, Sakura liked to think they would but she wasn't sure. She also wondered what they would think if she did one day just disappear like other people were rumoured to, or even what she'd do if one day she had found that Naruto had just vanished as if he never would have existed. No one would even talk about him or try to remember him if that happened.

It wasn't just a fairy story like she had first thought as a child. At one point she had thought it was a way to frighten her and Naruto into behaving, she had been warned when some hooded men had arrived at the village to be good and she thought that her mother way trying to scare her. It had always been that way before, don't say this or do that or you'll be taken away and as she had grown older, cockier, she had began to think that it was all a hoax. And then those men had come and they had started to talk to the families one by one, and then for a time it had gone silent.

And then one day, Sakura didn't know when she noticed, whether it had been the day after or even a week after it had happened, one of the houses was empty. It was only one family that had disappeared in their village, a relatively small number to lose compared to the towns where they were led to believe that people were taken away at an alarming rate for radical thought and conspiring against the great regime that they lived in.

But to their small community it had been a large blow to the rest of the villagers who had believed themselves to be safe so far away from the main cities. They had all talked and joked with this family, gone to the same shops and places and maybe even visited them from time to time, and then they were gone.

And now that one empty house remained in the village as an ominous reminded to the residents of the family that had once mixed freely with the rest of them until one day the house was emptied. Looters came, of course, from nearby towns and settlements and from the village itself, even if it had felt like even more of a betrayal. People had been able to salvage some food and stole furniture and things to turn into firewood. There had been stories of how the house was full of upturned furniture and many personal belongings were just left. It was as if there had been a scuffle as the family disappeared and, hopefully, moved onto escape in a hurry. Sakura didn't like to think of the alternative, that the family she had seen so often and even had with a boy her own age had been taken out into some faraway place and were callously executed.

She could barely remember them, no one talked about the missing family. They hadn't done so as soon as they were aware that they had vanished. It had become one of the many forbidden subjects that everyone knew but never spoke about. So Sakura was left with her own vague memories of them when she was young which had dimmed over time, they had just become a group of faceless people who she could barely remember.

She had some vague recollections of following Naruto to the family's house as he seemed to be close to their youngest son. They had both been older than her so she could remember watching them together outside when her mother had called her in. But she couldn't remember the boy's name, or what he looked like. She wondered if Naruto did, somehow she never wanted to ask.

It was a sad time they lived in but she could never remember hearing someone complaining. Not because they were happy or even because they were content with what was happening but it was more because it was easier to look the other way, to pretend that none of this stuff was happening near them. To complain was dangerous and to even give a hint of criticism about the regime could cost a person their life if the wrong person heard and if you saw something you shouldn't, well you pretended you were never there and never saw it.

Trust was spread thinly and people didn't know who to turn to, to confide in as any one, stranger or friend could potentially be an informer, offering up someone else's life, their happiness and even their entire family in return for false security.

No one was safe and anyone could hurt you. It was something they had all had to learn eventually growing up in the village and the empty house at the end of the abandoned street served as a reminder and a lesson for young children nowadays.

Sakura shivered slightly and Naruto noticed and put his arm around her.

"We'll be alright." He murmured. "We never went back there as far as anyone knows. Everything's going to be fine."

"What about my necklace?" Sakura said softly and Naruto sighed.

"You'll have to forget about it Sakura, you'll never be able to get it back." He said.

"I know that." Sakura sighed. "But what do I tell my mum?" Naruto was silent.

"You'll have to pretend you still have it," he said. "I won't tell if you won't." He added, grinning slightly to try and make light of their situation. As if it was a secret shared between two naughty children.

"Alright." Sakura said shakily.

They both fell silent and Sakura felt comfortable sitting back into Naruto's arm. Watching her parent's talk happily amongst themselves unaware that the body had just disappeared from their village. That someone had come to their village and removed it, without any of them noticing them come and go.

"More people are going to come aren't they?" She said finally and Naruto frowned.

"Probably, if they think that person was here for a reason." He muttered.

"Naruto," Sakura's mother called across to them, "would you like to stay for dinner." Sakura jumped guiltily but Naruto answered her with an easy smile.

"Sure." He said cheerfully, "you know how I'll take any offer for food."

"Well if you and Sakura could set the table then we'll be done so much quicker." She said and Sakura gave her a weak smile. She'd happily take these last few moments of normalcy in her family as she knew things were likely to change soon. As soon as people realised that the mysterious body had disappeared.

The next day, as Sakura had predicted, everything was different. Things were quieter and, even if no one said anything, there was a cloud of suspicion in the air as people wondered who would end up selling out the others to survive. They knew it was almost inevitable that someone else would disappear. The village had been lucky so far, there had only ever been one incident in the thirty odd years of the Emperor's reign over Fire Country but that incident had left them one family short and took years for the void in the community to be filled, or rather less noticed.

And now people were acutely aware of the abandoned house part way down the street as it dominated their thoughts as they began to wonder which house would be empty next. People began to rush past each other instead of stopping to exchange a few words as they used to.

Sakura sat with Naruto again watching her parent's withdrawn faces. She automatically brought her hand up to worry with the necklace that usually hung there and then she sighed when she felt nothing there. Naruto gave her a sharp look and then smiled slightly at her.

"Don't think about it." He muttered and Sakura looked down at her hands, twisting them together slightly, unsure what to do with them now that particular nervous habit had been taken away from her.

"It's just hard Naruto, no one knows what's going to happen from now on." She said softly and he nodded thoughtfully.

"I know." Naruto said "but I'll never leave you not if I can help it."

Sakura nodded. Then she thought of the empty house and the boy, the family she could barely remember.

"I'll never forget you Naruto, no matter what, you're my best friend." Naruto smiled grimly at her.

"Urg! Look at us having this depressing conversation. I refuse to let anything happen and besides there's no way ANBU or whatever will get here so quickly so for the next few days lets have fun." Naruto declared and Sakura gave him a genuine grin.

"Well as great as that all sounds I have a lesson with Tsunade today." She said and Naruto stared at her.

"What?" He said, "That's no good Sakura what do I do with myself now?" Sakura shrugged slightly.

"I'm sure you'll be able to find something." She said ignoring Naruto's pleading expression.

"But Sakura..." He started whining and she glared half heartedly at him.

"I am going to be late." She said and she noticed that both of her parents were casting her worried looks.

"Sakura, I know how much you enjoy your lessons with Tsunade." Her Dad started warily and Naruto rolled his eyes good naturedly, he could already guess that this wouldn't end well.

"And?" Sakura asked a little too brightly for Naruto's tastes, apparently she had guessed where this conversation was probably going as well.

"We just thought that maybe-" He began and her mother interrupted.

"It would be best if you didn't go today, or for your other lessons this week." She said firmly and Sakura stared stonily at them.

"What?" She said in a hard voice. Naruto began wondering if he could make a run for the door and escape before Sakura and her mother, two of the most stubborn people he knew, went head to head. He saw her father do the same but they had already started up again so there was nothing for either of them to do but sit it out for fear of drawing attention to themselves.

"Sakura, sweetheart, we're just looking out for you." Her Mum said in a soothing voice, "considering the state of things at the moment we feel it may be impractical to go and do these things."

"Impractical?" Sakura said, her voice rising in anger. She saw Naruto put his head in his hands out of the corner of her eye and gave him a swift glare before turning to look furiously at her parents. "How is learning to heal people _impractical_?" She demanded.  
>"Sakura, we didn't mean it like that. It's just that considering everything we'd rather you'd stay at home where we know you're safe." Her mother said sternly.<p>

"No where's safe." Sakura hissed, "that's the point, they've come to our village what is there now but to wait for more of ANBU to come and cart us all off!"

"Sakura!" Her mother said sharply and there was a sudden intake of breath from her father's corner. "Don't say things like that. You don't know-" She broke off awkwardly but she had said enough already, they didn't know who could be listening in ready to sell them out if it would save their own family. Sakura looked sheepish for a moment and then she recovered her previous indignant look.

"I'm still going to see Tsunade." Sakura said and Naruto shifted uncomfortably as Sakura attempted to stare down both her parents.

"Fine." Her mum said eventually, but she didn't seem happy about it. Naruto cleared his throat in an attempt to diffuse the tension between them all as Sakura and her mother continued to glare at each other.

"Then I'll be going now." Sakura said determinedly, "I'll be back this evening."

"Come straight home." Sakura's mother said sternly, in a voice that offered no room for argument this time, and Sakura gave her a short nod.

At Tsunade's the feel of the room was just as grim. Sakura studied the books and herbal remedies she was meant to be learning but, unlike the norm, Tsunade was barely speaking and she wasn't allowing Sakura to leave the room and find the herbs for herself to practice making up the cures. Apparently Tsunade agreed with Sakura's parents and was trying to keep an eye on her as much as possible.

Shizune, Tsunade's other student, was running to and fro attending to something with Tsunade in hushed voices that Sakura couldn't make out no matter how hard she tried. They were both more than just unsettled by the turn of events and having worked together for years they trusted each other enough to talk about the disappearing body in the village, and its implications. They just didn't feel comfortable discussing anything in front of Sakura, whether they didn't trust her enough or just simply didn't want her involved Sakura couldn't tell.

Sakura sighed and turned another page in the medical journal Tsunade had made, it was full of sketches and odd notes and she had encouraged Sakura to make her own, filled with observations and when she was more experienced she would be allowed to try creating her own remedies but for now she was learning from Tsunade's expertise.

Shizune had returned from Tsunade's storage room, she was carrying something new, it looked like a roll of papers and although Sakura strained her ears she could only hear the odd murmur of voices, nothing distinct, but she knew they were concerned, she could hear that much from the tone of their voices.

It was just another set of whispers in the village as people stole furtive glances at each other and hushed their children if they played too loudly in the streets there was an uneasy feeling in the air as people had heard rumours of what would happen next. Passing traders and travellers had passed on hearsay and speculation but they all pretty much coincided.

Someone from ANBU had come to their village to remove someone's body, it didn't matter that the person wasn't local, that no one knew him, next would come more ANBU agents and then interrogation and possibly more disappearances if someone said something the ANBU didn't like. Danger had finally reached Konoha, they had been isolated and relatively untouched for years, they could cope with food shortages and the sharp drop in trade that used to make the village prosper but they weren't safe anymore.

Sakura sat back in her chair and glanced out the window. The light was fading early today but she could still make out the shapes of people dashing about the village, hurrying about their business without pausing to greet their friends. People were running scared already and it was only just the beginning.

Sakura frowned slightly, there was something in the distance that she could just make out in the dim sunlight. People coming towards them from outside the village.

A heavy feeling landed in the pit of her stomach. She had hoped, prayed really, that maybe this would pass unnoticed, that all the speculation and hushed rumours were wrong and that her home would be untouched by the vanishing body, but she had been wrong to hope. It looked like ANBU had arrived in their village already.

Naruto was bored. Sakura had been working with Tsunade all day and no one else would be willing to talk to him. As soon as it had gotten dark people had shut themselves up in their houses. He expected that Sakura would be running home soon but he doubted that she would be able to stop and chat, she wouldn't be able to worry her parents.

Naruto knew that he should probably go home himself too but he stayed out a little longer, watching the sun dip low on the horizon. He shook his head slightly and began slowly walking home, he'd see Sakura tomorrow and he hoped that by then people would be less on edge.

Naruto was so lost in thought that he failed to notice the cloaked figures behind him until one of them reached out and grabbed his arm. He jumped and jerked away from them, whirling round to look at the two strangers who had approached them. He had no idea who they were and he realised that despite his unfailing optimism that trouble was indeed coming to Konoha. In fact it already seemed to be here.

"If it's alright can we ask you a few questions?" One of the strangers said and Naruto took his head vigorously.

"I'd rather you didn't." He said clenching his fists to try and stop them from shaking, he was scared, yes, but he refused to show it.

"Just a yes or no will do," The man continued, "can you tell us if anyone has passed through this village recently?" Naruto's mind whirled frantically. The body, they were asking about the body.

"I have nothing to say to you." Naruto said clearly, "Just leave us alone." And with that he turned and ran. Neither man followed him which confused Naruto slightly, if he had said something the ANBU didn't like he was expecting them to stop him, to turn him into one of the many people that had disappeared across the Fire Country over the years but he seemed to have gotten away with it.

Still, Naruto ran home without looking back. He couldn't believe his luck but he knew that he'd have to be extra vigilant and he'd have to try and warn Sakura somehow. Especially if they had been the ones who had found her necklace.

The man who had spoken earlier looked at his companion.

"He knows something." They said and his partner nodded.

"A small village like this, they all would have seen something." He said, "but it won't be easy getting them to say something."

"No," The first man said, "It never is, is it? No one likes to talk."


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura thought there was definitely something strange going on with Naruto, something she wasn't sure she liked at all. Previously he had retained some of his cheerful optimism when everyone else had turned inwards to protect themselves, their families and had become suspicious of their neighbours, never daring to speak out of turn. Naruto had still happily greeted the people he met, even if they preferred not to respond and hurry away from him, and even with the threat of ANBU looming he still have came to see her and talk before she went to Tsunade's.

Now, he still visited, but he seemed to be on edge about something. He was constantly looking round at his surroundings as if he was trying to protect Sakura instead of just paying a social call. It was like he expected people to be listening in and Sakura couldn't figure out how this change happened. What had happened to unnerve Naruto of all people. It was just bizarre, unnatural even. He even escorted her to all Tsunade's lessons, something that her mother was in full support of as it meant that Sakura wasn't left unprotected while she was apparently being reckless enough to want to walk to one end of the village and back again.

Naruto, as Sakura's self-appointed guard dog, was growing increasingly worried that he hadn't seen the two men from earlier again. He had expected further interrogation or even people to disappear but as far as he could see the village was functioning as normal even if people were acting more on edge than usual. He was worried and he didn't want Sakura to know what exactly he was worried about.

Naruto kept jumping at the shadows as he kept suspecting that someone was there waiting in them he was worried, scared and kept getting increasingly paranoid. He was more jittery than most and every time Sakura asked him what was wrong he lied, so he was starting to feel guilty as well for keeping things from her.

It was only natural, with his nerves stretched so thin, that when the two ANBU officers approached him again that he actually squealed in surprise when they grabbed his shoulder, although he'd deny it later.

"You are being unusually vigilant." The one with the shorter hair who grabbed him said.

"We think you know something." Said the other.

"No I don't," Naruto said and he was proud of the fact that his voice didn't waver in the slightest. The man with his hair in a ponytail sighed.

"Look, we're not stupid, and it's very important that we find out what happened. You're probably scared and you don't feel you can trust us but we need to know. The man who would have passed through here is very important to me and we just want to find out what happened before other people come to here." That piqued Naruto's interest.

"What other people." He said folding his arms slightly. The two men exchanged a strange look.

"Just other people." The fist man said.

"No." Naruto said again and the second man caught his arm.

"Can't you just-" He broke off awkwardly and Naruto was starting to get unnerved, what kind of ANBU interrogation was this suppose to be, nothing about this made sense. His mind worked furiously, something wasn't right here, were these two some kind of advance guard before the harsher interrogations that everyone knew about.

"Please." The first man said solemnly, "We need to know what happened to him, if he's safe, can't you just trust us for a few moments."

Naruto frowned slightly, tilting his head to one side as he thought. From the rumours about ANBU he'd expected to be snatched off the street, held prisoner, most probably beaten and then taken away or sent to his death. This was definitely something else but he didn't know what it was, informants maybe, but maybe not ANBU unless they were trying to soften him up first.

"You're not ANBU are you?" He said slowly and both men managed to look affronted, and Naruto wasn't sure what to believe any more. These people seemed clever enough to avoid detection which definitely marked them above the normal citizens of Fire Country and they were asking about the disappearing body. But whether they were part of the Emperor's many branches or law enforcement squads he didn't know.

On the other hand the ponytailed man seemed genuinely worried about what had happened to the man they were looking for.

"No way," The short haired man said, "We're the exact opposite of them." He added proudly but Naruto was none the wiser on who these people actually were.

"Tell me who you are." Naruto demanded and both men hesitated. "Your names at least, I can't even think about trusting you if you don't tell me that." The man with the long hair chuckled slightly.

"Interesting," He said, "My name's Shikamaru."

"Kiba." The other man said shortly.

"I'm Naruto," Naruto offered and Shikamaru nodded. "I need time to think." Naruto said slowly. Kiba made an agitated growl in the back of his throat and Shikamaru wacked him on the shoulder.

"Alright." Shikamaru said, "We don't mind," he added although that remark seemed to be more aimed at Kiba than Naruto. "It's probably hard for you but we need you to take a deep breath and tell us. Just be brave for one moment and then that's it if you tell us you won't see us again." Naruto bristled slightly at the implication that he was scared. Although if he was honest with himself, he was. No one knew what to expect anymore and who to trust and that disturbed Naruto more than he liked to admit.

"I'll meet you tonight." He said finally, "At the west gate of the village, I'll tell you my answer then."

"Fine," Shikamaru said.

"It better be a good answer." Kiba growled leaning in towards Naruto. Naruto gulped and Shikamaru gave him an exasperated sigh.

"You are not helping," He said, "How is he even going to trust us now if you're trying to threaten him Kiba?"

"We'll wait for you when it gets dark." Kiba said, "And you better be there." Shikamaru rolled his eyes but apparently he decided it was too much hassle to berate his companion again so he just gave Naruto a half hearted wave as they left him.

Naruto frowned as he watched them melt away into the shadows in the gaps between houses.

"Naruto," Someone called him and he started, whirling round to see Sakura smiling at him.

"I thought you were doing something with Tsunade until later." He said, although it came out as more of an accusation. Sakura shrugged.

"I was supposed to be learning about making different types of pain killers but we didn't have enough of the right ingredients and Tsunade's still not keen on me wandering the forest collecting plants for it."

"You shouldn't be," Naruto said automatically and Sakura just rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," She said, "If it's so dangerous out here then why are you spacing out in the middle of the street."

"I was just thinking," Naruto said slowly.

"Probably not the best place to do it," Sakura said giving him an amused smile, "someone could walk right into you."

"Yeah," Naruto said slowly, Sakura sighed as he still showed no signs of wanting to move so she grabbed his arm and began dragging him towards her house.

Once they were there she shoved Naruto backwards onto the sofa and he still seemed to barely notice where they were or what had happened.

"What's on your mind?" Sakura asked getting some mugs out for them to have a drink. She frowned as Naruto didn't seem to register the question.

"Hey," She said before reaching over to whack Naruto over the back of his head, he made a noise of complaint. "Well that finally got your attention," She muttered "I said what's on your mind." She added loudly.

"I don't know," Naruto said slowly. "I was just thinking about what to believe in all this." Sakura frowned slightly as she tried to understand what he was trying to say. She stayed silent to allow Naruto time to rearrange his thoughts.

"I just don't know what to think about all this anymore." Naruto said firmly and Sakura set down a mug of tea in front of him as she considered what he said.

"You mean all this as in the-"

"The dead man." Naruto finished for her, "Yes. And what it all means."

"Are you worried about what will come to our village?" Sakura asked tentatively, "because you know we can get through this right? Just like everyone did before."

"Yeah like when that other family went missing," Naruto said darkly, "No one talks about them, it's like they never existed, no one even tries to remember them anymore."

"I remember them," Sakura said softly, "They had a son your age, and the two of you used to fight, a lot."

"I know that," Naruto said, "but it's just that with all this happening to the village again I wondered what happened to them, if someone we live with now sold them out for some reason. Someone we still live with and probably talk to and they might do it again. And the more I think about that family the more I realise that I don't really remember them.

"I was eight when they disappeared and no one even told me what happened to them. And the boy I was supposed to be friends with at the time, I barely remember him, I can't remember his face properly. Hell, I can't even remember his _name_, _any of their names!"_

"Naruto-" Sakura started.

"And what if that person who sold them out only did it because they made the mistake of trusting someone they shouldn't have." He continued thinking about his encounter earlier. "What if they thought that, I don't know, they were putting their trust in the right people and never thought that would happen."

Sakura stared at Naruto feeling slightly unnerved, it was probably the frankest conversation they had ever had. No one talked about these things anymore, not in her lifetime anyway. The walls had ears the saying went, and it was true. They also had eyes and notebooks that recorded every step out of line. So the fact that Naruto was bringing all this up meant that he was seriously troubled about something.

"So you're saying it all comes down to a leap of faith," She said slowly, "and whether it pays off or not." Sakura briefly wondered what had happened to Naruto but knew there was no way he'd feel able to tell her. No matter how good friends they were he'd feel the need to protect her from whatever this was.

"Yeah, a leap of faith," Naruto said thoughtfully.

"Are you going to jump?" Sakura asked and Naruto looked startled. He gave her a questioning look. "That is what this has been about isn't it? Whether to make the leap and trust someone." Naruto gaped at her and Sakura smirked at him. "I'm not stupid Naruto."

"I know, I just didn't think-"

"And you have never been good at subtlety, so be careful" She added, "I won't ask what this is about, I don't want you to lie to me, but if you have a long think about this you'll know what to do. Instinctively you'll know whether to put your trust in this person or not."

"But what if I chose wrong." Naruto asked suddenly.

"You won't," Sakura said firmly, "You always do what you believe is best so you won't chose wrong, and maybe if you felt that you couldn't trust this person already then we wouldn't be having this conversation." She added with a sly smile.

"You're probably right," Naruto said.

"I always am," Sakura said lightly and she and Naruto laughed slightly.

"Thank you Sakura," Naruto said warmly and Sakura sat back on the sofa with him and took a sip of her tea. They fell silent for a moment before Sakura felt the need to say something more.

"You know I'll always support whatever you decide to do don't you?" She said and Naruto smiled at her.

"Yeah, and you know I'll always look out for you, right?" He said

"I can look after myself" Sakura said firmly.

"Yeah but-"

"I know you will always be looking out for me Naruto," Sakura said firmly, "but I just want you to remember that with all _this_ going on not to act recklessly or stupidly as I can protect myself too. You need to look out for yourself as well."

"You're not as strong as I am," Naruto protested.

"I don't need to be," Sakura said with a shrug, "Not when Tsunade's also taught me which plants are poisonous, and there are some you can mix up that become really toxic, the best one I've learnt so far can knock a man out flat in less than a minute and he'll be dead in ten." She fixed Naruto with a sharp look and he gingerly leant away from her.

"You have no idea how scary you are right now." He muttered and Sakura laughed.

"Just so you know. I can take care of myself, right?"

"Oh yeah, I see that now." Naruto said and he began eying his tea suspiciously. Sakura gave him a warm smile and Naruto gave her a small one in return.

They fell silent for a few moments before Naruto started glancing at Sakura every few moments.

"So how many new ways to kill people did you learn today?" He asked and Sakura rolled her eyes.

"I'm learning how to _heal_ people Naruto, it just happens that some plants have poisonous properties that I have to be aware of because I can't exactly go picking the wrong thing and killing my patient can I? Tsunade just tells me about all the other stuff in passing, she just says it's something that I might need, you know a just in case kind of thing." She explained.

"If you say so," Naruto said with a slight smile.

"Be careful Naruto, some of those plants are common in this area so don't piss me off." Sakura said with a grin and then she stood up to put their mugs in the sink leaving Naruto feeling distinctly unsettled.

"You'd never be able to do something like that to me," He squawked. Sakura just laughed.

Naruto smiled to himself. Sakura was right, the fact that he had arranged to meet Shikamaru and Kiba later meant he did want to trust them but he felt much better after turning it over in his mind with Sakura. He'd meet those two men tonight, he just really hoped he was making the right choice.

"The little bastard isn't coming," Kiba said, pacing up and down by the western gate.

"It's not dark yet he might still come." Shikamaru said in a half hearted attempt to appease his partner. He was trying to ignore all Kiba's nervous energy by watching the sky, as the stars winked into being one by one with each passing minute as the sky darkened.

"Or he's going to get us caught," Kiba muttered.

"Hey," Naruto said jogging up to them and Kiba whirled round to frown at him, scanning the surrounding area for anyone else.

"So?" Shikamaru asked.

"You were asking about a man who passed through this village." Naruto said, his heart was drumming loudly in his chest, not because he had run to meet them but because he was still scared of what talking about it could do.

"Yes," Shikamaru said, and he sounded almost eager. "He was headed in this direction, it's really important we find him."

"No one passed through here." Naruto said and the faces of both men opposite him fell. "But there was a body." He continued, "A few weeks ago, just before there was a snow storm, it was found off the outskirts of the village. It was gone before we could get back to perform any rites on it."

Shikamaru paled.

"What?" He asked.

"Are you sure?" Kiba asked, "It was definitely a man not anything else?"

"Yes, I went right up to it with – a friend." He said haltingly, remembering just in time to omit Sakura's name.

"No," Shikamaru whispered. Naruto frowned slightly, they seemed to be grieving the man.

"I'm sorry," He said without really understanding why.

"They got him," Kiba snarled, "I can't believe it Asuma was one of the best."

"Who did?" Naruto asked.

"ANBU!" Kiba exploded and Shikamaru hushed him. Kiba fell silent, looking guilty, and they both looked around to see if anyone had been disturbed by the outburst. The last thing they needed was to be caught now.

"I'm so sorry Shikamaru," Kiba said, "I know he was-"

"What happened?" Shikamaru asked.

"It looked like he bled to death in the snow." Naruto said shifting uncomfortably.

"So he fought someone here? Have you seen any other people in the village you don't recognise?" Kiba asked, grasping Naruto by the arms.

"No, just you two." He said trying to pull away from him, "And he was just there when we went out in the morning when there was a break in the snow." He frowned slightly as he tried to remember. "There was blood all around him and behind him."

"He wasn't attacked here" Shikamaru said suddenly, "A village this small would have noticed something off and if he was killed here the body would have been taken away instantly and he wouldn't have been found by the villagers."

"So then...?" Kiba said slowly.

"He fought them somewhere else, nearby, and was wounded but he managed to escape and came here." Shikamaru continued thoughtfully, "You said the blood was behind him?" He asked Naruto who nodded, "like a trail of blood from where he had walked from?"

"Maybe," Naruto said, "It's been snowing for weeks on an off and it had been that morning a lot so there was some but it there was a trail then it was mostly covered up."

"So he died soon after he reached the village and it had stopped snowing." Kiba said, "He can't have come from too far away."

"But the bad weather made it harder for ANBU to track him and they found him later." Shikamaru said, "still if it was snowing that heavily it's amazing he even made it to this village. And moving in a snow storm is difficult enough so it would be even harder with a serious wound."

"So was it coincidence that he made it hear or was he really nearby?" Kiba asked and Naruto stayed quiet, curiously watching the back and forth between the two men.

"Asuma always knew the area he was working in, every part of the terrain, _always_. So my guess is that he came here to try and get help and-" Shikamaru broke off unable to say anymore.

"And didn't make it." Kiba said softly. They fell silent and Naruto shifted uncomfortably between them.

"Who are you people?" Naruto demanded when the silence became too much for him to bear.

"No one," Kiba said, "you need to forget you ever saw us."

"Well that's kind of impossible isn't it?" Naruto argued. "You're fighting ANBU, why?"

"Because what they're doing is wrong," Kiba hissed, "when did protection become snatching entire families in the night? People are executed every day for nothing."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"ANBU were created to protect the people, and now all they do is destroy us to keep the Emperor in power, we won't sit around and do nothing." Kiba said.

"That's enough." Shikamaru said, and it was the first time Naruto had heard him speak sharply.

"Alright," Kiba said raising his hands slightly. "I'll let him continue living in blissful ignorance."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto said. "Tell me."

"Thank you for telling us all this. Now you need to put this all out of your mind so you can protect your family." Shikamaru said.

"I don't have a family," Naruto said, "I never have. So tell me who you are."

Shikamaru and Kiba exchanged a long look.

"We don't really have a name," Shikamaru said slowly, "at least not one we gave ourselves but the people that help us and know about us call us the Resistance." Kiba snorted.

"It's not very imaginative but it is more or less what we do," He said.

"I've never heard of you lot existing before." Naruto said suspiciously, "I would have thought there would have been rumours of something."

"We've never been able to organise support this far into the country," Shikamaru said, "it's mostly around towns and industrial areas. It's why Asuma was here and it's why he was killed." He looked across at Kiba. "We should get going." He added.

"Alright," Kiba said, shouldering a bag that Naruto had never noticed before that was concealed in the shadows of the walls of the gate. He passed a similar bag to Shikamaru.

"Really, thanks telling us what you know," Shikamaru said and offered Naruto his hand to shake.

"That's alright," Naruto said and Kiba gave him a half wave before they both melted away into the darkness. Naruto squinted after them but even though he knew where to look he couldn't see them at all.

It was like they had never been there at all.


	5. Chapter 5

"I hate having to get rid of bodies." Uchiha briefly glanced up at his partner before he looked back down to study the covered mound of earth as he and his companion both wiped their hands down the sides of their trousers as if they were trying to get something more off than just mud, even if it wasn't the first dead body they had handled they were still left with an uneasy feeling.

"Well I'll say one thing for the Emperor, over time he's sure made it easier to do." Uchiha said and the other man chuckled slightly.

"Makes the job so much easier now people are too scared to poke around in dark corners." He muttered and then he sighed and bent down to pick up a bottle he had left by the freshly dug grave. He took a deep swig of it before passing it to his friend, "here you look like you need it." He added. Uchiha drank some himself and flinched.

"God, what is that?"

"I have no idea, some locally made stuff, but hey, as long as it has a high content of alcohol I'm all set especially after having to do something like this." Uchiha allowed himself a brief smile.

"Didn't they used to have some sort of clean up squad for this?" Uchiha said bracing himself and taking another gulp from the bottle before handing it back.

"Oh yeah, but I think that was before they decided to teach everyone torture and interrogation and people decided that they'd prefer that to the constant digging."

"If I remember right you aced that class."

"What can I say, apparently that's where my natural talent lies, it's not with body disposal that's for sure." The other man said with a laugh.

"I noticed. You left me to do most of the digging." Uchiha said dryly, the other man shrugged and took another long drink.

"How's your brother doing?" He asked.

"Do we have to get into this?"

"Come on Uchiha I'm curious, everyone knows about him he's supposed to be really good."

"One of the best but then again he never did anything by halves. I haven't spoken to him in about ten years. I hardly know him anymore." He said curtly.

"Ouch."

"Don't you have a family, I mean if you want to get into mine then you have to say something about you now it's only fair." Uchiha took the bottle away from his partner and took another drink.

"If I have one I don't know about it." He took the offered bottle back and held it thoughtfully. "Is it different, having a family? Do you think it makes people different?"

"I don't think I really have one anymore, going through the Academy broke that."

"Not exactly one for teaching love and affection there were they?"

"Neither was Itachi." Sasuke Uchiha said softly and his friend gave him an odd look. He took a deep drink from the bottle and passed it to Sasuke with a gesture to let him know it was okay to finish it off.

"Urg, what a mess." The man said. Sasuke made a noise of agreement and downed the rest of the strange alcohol he had been given he grimaced at the aftertaste that caught in the back of his throat.

"It certainly is," Sasuke said, "especially when it all comes down to it the only person I have left is you, Gaara."

"Well that is depressing," Gaara said and Sasuke laughed slightly.

"Yeah, let's get out of here." He muttered dumping the bottle in the undergrowth. "I'm sick of this place." Sasuke said and as Gaara turned to leave he spared one more glance at the grave they had dug.

It just looked like a pile of turned over earth and they were deep enough in the forest so that that the body wouldn't be found. There were other, older, lumps in the earth that were covered in moss and other plants that Sasuke tried not to think about too much.

Their earlier talk about family made Sasuke wonder about the man they had found, whether he had had a real family, if someone was still waiting for him to come home. He took out the necklace that he still had in his pocket, Sasuke couldn't have risked burying it with the corpse, it was supposed to be unidentifiable so he and Gaara had removed anything that could be recognisable. But for someone to have given that man this necklace to hold on to, Sasuke assumed that he must have been cared for.

"Are you coming Uchiha?" Gaara asked, Sasuke didn't reply. Gaara sighed and walked back towards him. "Hey, Sasuke." He continued and put his hand on Sasuke's arm startling the other man. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Sasuke said firmly, "Just tired after all this I guess." Gaara gave him a sceptical look but he didn't say any more and Sasuke was glad he was prepared to let it go.

"We should start heading back to receive our next assignment," Gaara said heavily and Sasuke nodded.

"Let's go." He muttered. Gaara nodded in agreement and they walked wearily towards the edge of the forest. It seemed heavier going on the way back even if they weren't physically weighed down by the body. They were both tired and neither of them were particularly looking forward to their next assignment, whatever it may be.

Where there had once been the sort of naive optimism that came with youth, it had been stamped out all to quickly after only a few short years, to be replaced by a bitter cynicism and a world weariness that came from seeing too much in such a short space of time. Too much poverty, too much hatred and too much loss. And even in the rare places like the village of Konoha that had largely avoided most of the trouble and violence, its people had a tired attitude and felt worn down after the years of shortages in food and clothing.

As many people had fled, seeking better lives in the town, people had often lost their friends and families suddenly and they were left unsure as to whether they have simply upped and moved away in search of a better life or if they had been snatched away in the night by ANBU operatives.

It was the uncertainty that had really worn away at people and Sasuke and Gaara had seen it everywhere. That and fear, as people huddled in their doorway as Sasuke and Gaara walked past, unsure what they would bring to their towns.

It was a broken country they all lived in and everyone knew it. And now they could only make the best with the fragments they had left. People now, who had grown up with the regime had learnt how to endure anything that came their way, they had never known anything else.

Sasuke fingered the necklace in his pocket thoughtfully. It was amazing that people were still capable of caring for each other and exchanging tokens like this in such a place even if it was out of some stupid sentimentality Sasuke couldn't understand.

"How long do you think it will take us to get back to the capital?" Gaara asked and Sasuke took as few more strides to catch up to Gaara.

"A week maybe." Sasuke said thoughtfully, "If we manage to get some horses and travel as long as its daylight."

"I thought so too," Gaara muttered, "How does taking the journey back slowly sound to you?" Gaara gave him a stern look as if he was daring Sasuke to suddenly turn on him. Sasuke smiled slightly.

"We could probably stretch it out to two weeks at least." Sasuke said slowly. Gaara looked relieved, or as relieved as the emotionless man could ever look. "You know, see the sights." He added and Gaara snorted.

"I think most places look the same now." He said and Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Still, its better than being sent out to do God knows what on our next assignment."

* * *

><p>"We should to hurry back." In another forest, in a different part of the country another team of two were staring down at three recently deceased members of the Resistance. The man that hadn't spoken leant down to yank his sword roughly out of the last victim.<p>

"We need to at least get rid of these." He said with distain.

"Burn them then, then we can hurry back for our next mission." The first man said, his companion frowned at him and leant of his sword while the other hand fumbled for some matches.

"We've done solid missions for the last month Itachi, don't you want to at least slow down?" He asked.

"No," Itachi said firmly. "We need to keep moving." His partner Kisame sighed and after drenching the bodies in fluid bent down to set light to them.

"If we must." He said and Itachi gave him a sharp look. "Not all of us can work like machines Itachi, we need to rest sometime."

"You can rest when we're both dead." Itachi said stonily and Kisame cocked his head as he watched Itachi thoughtfully.

"What is it with you?" He asked and Itachi ignored him, "Seriously, we've been working together for about five years and by now I thought I'd know something about you, but you give nothing away."

"There's no point to that." Itachi said, "Besides there's no need look at my past beyond ANBU, we're not meant to be individuals, we move together as a team for the greater good." Kisame gave Itachi a steady look, almost as if he didn't believe what Itachi was saying but he didn't comment, it was too dangerous with him, Kisame had heard the rumours that this was the kid that sold out his entire family.

"Wow, you really read the entire handbook didn't you," Kisame said awkwardly to try and defuse the tension. Itachi continued to look at Kisame levelly.

"It was a requirement for our training." He said. Kisame cleared his throat.

"Well maybe not everyone has it memorised." Kisame said and this time Itachi didn't comment on it, or maybe he was lucky enough for Itachi not to actually hear his remarks.

"We have rules so we can keep order," Itachi said, "That's the point. On the other hand you seem to revel in the chaos of bloodshed."

"Each to their own." Kisame said with a grin and Itachi gave him a pointed look. "Oh come on Itachi is it so wrong that I find pleasure in what we do."

"It's a necessary evil to protect people not a game." Kisame looked at Itachi thoughtfully, dear God the poor sap seemed to genuinely _believe_ what he was saying, most people had at least some quiet doubts but Itachi seemed to think that what they were doing was genuinely part of the greater good. Kisame didn't believe that a greater good had ever existed not under the Emperor or the Hokage's.

What Kisame didn't know about his partner was that Itachi stuck to the rules because he had nothing else to hold on to. The concrete words in the ANBU manual offered something real whereas the real world, a place of hopes and dreams had proved to be nothing but a disappointment.

* * *

><p>Naruto had doubts. He had a lot of them. He was second guessing the trust he had placed in those two resistance members sometimes thinking that they were the genuine article and other times wondering if they were in fact ANBU in disguise. But surely, he reasoned, that if it was ANBU they would have taken him away by now.<p>

He also began to doubt his place in the world and, for someone who was usually as self assured as Naruto was, everyone he knew had noticed the difference. He was quieter, and more reserved, abnormally so Sakura had said. There was an unspoken agreement that Naruto had been shaken by the disappearing body, he was a good person, people thought, maybe he wasn't as hardened to violence and the rest to them liked to believe they were.

Naruto thought about the Resistance a lot, a group that should never existed, that didn't exist as far as anyone knew, they had heard stories, that time the armaments factory blew sky high not so far from Konoha that Naruto could remember seeing a cloud of smoke in the distance, as a dark smudge on the horizon.

In the weeks that followed there had been a flurry of rumours that the Resistance had struck a huge blow to Danzo's regime and were targeting key areas of Fire Country to destroy Danzo's control. And then nothing else happened.

No more factories destroyed or anything else as far as they knew, and few months later a group of severe looking people decked out in uniform came to Konoha and issued an official statement. The boiler had broken and become highly pressurised, and despite the workers best efforts the factory had been destroyed. It had been a terrible loss to be sure but they were made aware that it had been nothing more than an accident, just a tragic accident that had taken away some of Fire Country's most _loyal_ workers and did anyone have any questions.

At barely 14 Naruto had been unable to recognise the significance of what had been said, why the spokesman had said accident so much, almost every other sentence, and what had loyalty anything to do with it. But to the adults there, none who dared pose a question, they knew that it was time for any talk of the Resistance to be stamped out and that whatever had actually happened at that factory all they needed to believe was the version they were presented with now.

So it was left and nearly forgotten, if anyone felt the need to talk about what happened it was only referred to as The Accident and that was the truth as far as anyone was concerned.

And now Naruto recognised it to be a warning of sorts, a warning not to get too excited as even if the Resistance had made a small blow to Danzo he was still here to stay and for those nearby, well their loyalty would be rewarded as they would be able to keep their lives. You had to express loyalty to the regime whether you felt it or not, something Naruto was finding increasingly difficult. He could ignore it before, Konoha was relatively untouched by the changes of the regime and any drastic ones had happened when he was too young to understand what was going on.

But now he couldn't pretend it wasn't happening and Naruto was faced with a truth he didn't want to admit to himself. Their country was rotten, destroyed, and the man they were all supposed to revere and look to, to lead them was the cause. And Naruto himself could do nothing about it and he hated being helpless.

He knew that Sakura was watching him carefully, she was worried that much was evident but she was afraid to push him. After their conversation about making a leap of faith it was almost as if she didn't quite know what to say to him anymore, they avoided broaching that subject at all costs and did their best to bury it but something had changed and they both knew it.

Sakura had been spending more time with Shizune and Tsunade who were teaching her everything they knew it seemed and he often saw Sakura coming and going with increasingly bizarre looking plants that he had no idea what they were meant to be or what they were for.

Without Sakura to distract him Naruto was left with his thoughts more and more and he began to wonder if he'd ever see those two men again, whether Resistance or ANBU, and he thought that whoever they were at least they were doing something, they had something to fight for that they believed in whether it was preserving the regime or trying to break it.

And what Naruto wanted most of all was to regain some of the conviction he had before, so he could talk to Sakura and tell her that everything would turn out fine and mean it. He was older than her and Sakura used to look up to him when they were younger, she trusted him to tell her what was happening, what was right and wrong with the wisdom that children believed came from being several months older than the other.

Now, it was Naruto who was starting to look to Sakura for guidance, he was lost and now he didn't feel able to ask his best friend for help. Talk of the Resistance or anything anti-Danzo or ANBU was dangerous, even in the most secluded areas. The walls had ears. They also had eyes, mouths and hands to report you to the authorities and point you out in a crowd.

So Naruto kept everything to himself, knowing he was probably hurting his friend by refusing to confide in her, as he kept thinking about the mysterious Resistance and how, despite everything, they were fighting what seemed to be a losing battle but trying to do some good along the way. He only wished he could do the same himself.


	6. Chapter 6

Gaara was annoyed. Which meant that if he were any other person he would be ranting and raving at his partner by now. As he wasn't, Sasuke was instead treated to a silent, and extremely intimidating, aura of menace that seemed to surround Gaara. Something that was honestly more effective at unnerving most people than shouting at them. Sasuke, however, just ignored it.

They had been sent out on new mission of sorts, if being sent out to constantly chase rumours of the Resistance counted as a new mission it was what they had been doing before after all, and the time before that, and the time before that. The problem with doing a lot of thee missions and having a good success rate at finding out new potential sources meant that they were now considered sort of experts on the matters, and that, in turn meant even more missions of the same kind.

Gaara had never liked secrets, yet somehow secrets were everything in the world he moved in. The hidden parts of the regime that no one could legitimately know about, those very same parts that they were to deny all knowledge of and of taking part. The torture, the prisons, the body counts. Yet the one person Gaara thought he could count on for honesty was, strangely enough, Sasuke.

They had never gotten along at first, when they were first put together as a team after Gaara's first partner had a terrible accident that Gaara couldn't have saved him from. And okay, maybe he could have saved him if he'd tried harder, but he'd never liked him that much anyway and Gaara was apathetic to what was going on around him.

Then there was Sasuke, an arrogant little kid who'd rubbed Gaara the wrong was instantly. Sasuke had been fresh from the academy and although he was a year older than Gaara he hadn't seen half of what Gaara had already, or so he thought. There had been hints of a darker part of Sasuke's past that Gaara wasn't privy too, but, at first he'd not bothered to question it as he didn't care, and now he allowed Sasuke that small amount of privacy partly because he never wanted to talk about his own past anyway and partly because Sasuke had earned his grudging respect.

And he did respect Sasuke, which was a strange realisation from someone who had no feelings on any matter of the regime before, he'd accepted the tasks assigned to him as he had nothing else and knew no other way to live his life. But Sasuke had managed to _hurt_ him, hurt Gaara who was hailed as an exceptional ANBU agent as he'd returned from every mission without a scratch on him and then he'd been forced to stumble back to base with Sasuke, arm in a _sling_, after a mission and it wasn't the mission itself that did it to him it had been his partner. He had made some sort of comment that apparently Sasuke didn't like and the next thing he knew was that Sasuke had turned on him.

It was then that he'd found out that Sasuke was funny in a way, funny peculiar that is. He didn't like blood everywhere, and he didn't like it when bodies were torn apart. So Gaara found himself curbing his blood-up-all-the-walls killing habits and Sasuke seemed to relax a tiny amount. Gaara didn't think he was being considerate at the time, for his partner who'd attacked him so suddenly was shaking with a mixture of rage and something else Gaara couldn't place.

Strangely enough it had never crossed his mind to turn Sasuke in for attacking him, he could have branded it as treason even and had him executed but Gaara had written the report himself and put his wounded shoulder down to a lucky shot from the chaotic rebel group they had been hunting down (who were possibly part of the Resistance, they didn't have enough evidence to prove if they were or weren't but their assignment had called for them to be executed). And he'd allowed the spotless record he'd been so proud of be ruined for Sasuke.

It was around this time that Sasuke had unknowingly become the one person Gaara felt he could count on, they had spoken to each other over time and Gaara had come to learn more about him. He had, however, only discovered that Sasuke had a brother when they had both happened to call in at the same ANBU base over near the border to the Land of Waves.

It that taken a lot for Gaara to conceal his surprise at the existence of another Uchiha in ANBU, before he had ignored all the petty gossip that circulated ANBU bases, and it was his old partners interest in spreading rumours that never endeared him to Gaara, and it was Sasuke's interest in privacy that Gaara sort of liked. It was only when Itachi appeared on the scene and Gaara felt the tiniest stirrings of _something_ deep inside him that he realised that he had assumed the Sasuke's desire for privacy didn't extend to him.

He had thought he had known his partner well enough by now that there were no big secrets between them but first there was Itachi and now, upon discovering the small flower shaped necklace in Sasuke's possession, there was this. And Gaara was familiar enough with himself to realise that the something he had felt before was hurt, with a little bit of betrayal mixed in for good measure. Gaara had thought Sasuke was beyond keeping things from him now, especially after the big Itachi conversation they had when a mission had gone bad and survival looked like it wasn't an option anymore. Apparently Gaara had been wrong. He hated being wrong as well.

Gaara had first found the necklace a few days ago, it was when they had stopped off to see what their next mission was supposed to be, something that turned out to be a complete waste of time they had been given nothing new. But Gaara had found something in Sasuke's bag which had surprised him.

He hadn't been deliberately going through it but they had been given some extra supplies and as Sasuke hadn't been in the room they were sharing Gaara thought it wouldn't matter if he put it in Sasuke's pack himself, after all as far as he'd known at the time it contained the same as his did. The necklace had thrown him though, he had noticed something shining and had a rather unfortunate fit of curiosity that Gaara wasn't often prone to. He had pulled out the delicate flower shaped necklace with some confusion as he didn't know where or how Sasuke had come to own such a thing.

The ANBU rulebook would have him report it. They weren't meant to carry personal trinkets with them, by entering ANBU they had effectively given up their right to a separate identity to the one being an ANBU agent provided them. It was only really for ease of use that they kept their names because rattling off rank numbers was something that even the administrators could admit was ridiculous. Besides if need be names could be interchangeable for the sake of the mission. But as far as Gaara knew Sasuke had kept his name, and Gaara was the only name he had known, whether it was the one he was born with was another matter altogether.

Regardless, Gaara had said nothing during their temporary rest stop at an ANBU base. He wondered what was so important to Sasuke that he would keep it, he knew it wasn't from a girl, Sasuke never seemed to go off base and meet anyone, Gaara would have noticed that, so Gaara could only assume that it was something Sasuke had kept with him for years from before he entered ANBU.

"What's bothering you?" Sasuke asked and Gaara just gave him a stony look.

"Nothing." He said firmly and Sasuke looked like he wanted to say something but he just shook his head instead. They continued walking in silence for a while longer and Sasuke was still aware of Gaara's eyes practically burning a spot in the back of his head. It had been that was for days and Sasuke was slowly running out of patience, not that he ever had that much to start off with.

Sasuke stopped walking and turned around, and it was only Gaara's quick reflexes that stopped him from walking into Sasuke.

"Look if there's something you want to say just say it." Sasuke said.

"I could say the same to you," Gaara said evenly and Sasuke frowned at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Is there anything you feel like telling me?" Gaara asked and Sasuke half shrugged.

"Not really."

"I see." Gaara watched Sasuke silently and Sasuke began to feel slightly uncomfortable. It was even stranger as any form of heart to heart he had had with Gaara never came willingly, they were never ones to do the big soul searching talks while they travelled under the stars or anything like that. Any big revelations came when they felt they had no other option but now it felt as if Gaara was waiting for him to say something, and Sasuke didn't know what he was expecting him to say. Gaara looked slightly put out.

"Just come out and say it, something's obviously bothering you." Sasuke said, sounding exasperated.

"Who did the necklace belong to?" Gaara asked and Sasuke froze. He should have known better, Gaara wasn't exactly known for his tact but this was the last thing he had expected the other man to say.

"I-" Sasuke started and then he trailed off, not really sure what to say.

"It must have meant something for you to actually keep it despite everything." Gaara said.

"It's nothing." Sasuke said evenly.

"Don't lie to me, I thought we were beyond that by now. I know you and I know when you're lying to me." Sasuke sighed and glanced around, he took his bag off and sat down on a large, protruding tree trunk and put his head in his hands.

"It is nothing," He said again, and Gaara frowned at him. "I found it in that village, Konoha, in the snow by the body. I don't know why I kept it, it just seemed- I don't know." Gaara took a seat on the ground opposite Sasuke and looked at him thoughtfully.

"Did you tell anyone?" Sasuke asked.

"Do you think they would have let you walk out on another mission if I did?" Gaara countered and Sasuke shook his head.

"No," He paused. "Thank you."

"Is there anything else you've been keeping from me?" Gaara asked and Sasuke could have sworn that for a moment that Gaara seemed upset at the thought of him keeping secrets.

"Someone had seen the body" Sasuke said slowly, "They'd written _Rest in Peace_ in the snow." Gaara sighed.

"Well, by now people know to keep their mouths shut so you might be alright there." Sasuke nodded and pulled the necklace out of his bag.

"He probably got a better memorial than most people out there with that," He said running his thumb over the petals.

"He probably got more than we ever will as well." Gaara muttered, he reached out to ask for a look at the necklace without saying anything and Sasuke passed it over. "Do you think it was his? The man from the Resistance?"

"Probably, it seems a bit much for someone from that village to have."

"It looks old, it's what I imagine a family heirloom to look like." Sasuke gave Gaara an odd look, he often forgot that Gaara had never experienced any kind of family life.

"It probably was." He said softly. "So what do we do now. I've managed to incriminate us both."

"No one else knows about it yet." Gaara said, "Besides, maybe we could use this and find out more about that Resistance member."

"We know roughly from the direction he was travelling in that he probably came from one of the outlying villages near the Fire Temple so if we look there maybe someone will recognise it. It's a long shot but it's probably better than chasing rumours for months."

"So this is probably what they call a blessing in disguise." Gaara said and Sasuke almost smiled.

"Even if I was being stupidly sentimental at the time." He sighed, "I'm not good at this," He muttered. "Itachi would never have slipped up like that." Gaara frowned.

"We're all only human. Despite what they want us to believe, and some of us are probably a little more human than others." He said digging in the ground with a stray stick. "I've never experienced the things you have so I can't pretend to understand feelings like sentimentality but it can only be good, right? I mean it's better to have that then be what I am. I can't feel anything unless I'm hurting someone."

Sasuke sat back on his hands and gave Gaara an odd look.

"I don't believe that." He announced and Gaara looked up at the pattern he was digging in the dirt. Sasuke was refusing to look at him though. "Maybe it was true before but I don't believe that now."

"It's true when I'm fighting someone, when I'm hurting them is when I'm the most alive."

"That's the same with all of us, it's the adrenaline." Sasuke said dismissively. "Sometimes, there's more than just that in you, you're the same as the rest of us deep down." He continued flatly, "you might have been one of the best ANBU operatives they've ever seen, until I ruined that for you." He added with a smirk that had Gaara almost rising to the bait to protect his former reputation as unbeatable, "but you're as human as the rest of us are." Sasuke paused, "except maybe my brother the automaton."

Gaara nodded and they fell silent for a moment.

"Come on." Sasuke said suddenly, "I've had enough of this conversation." Gaara nodded.

"One more thing," He added, and Sasuke glanced back at him. "Thank you for actually trusting me with this."

"You've been glaring at me for a week," Sasuke said, "I had to tell you something."

"If that's all it takes for you to crack then you'd be shit on the receiving end of torture and interrogation." Sasuke snorted.

"If it's anyone else but you I'd be fine." He said standing up, "besides you seem surprised that I'd trust you after everything we've been through of course I do." He said frankly.

"You never said anything about it to start off with."

"Because it would incriminate you as well."

"It's too late for you to be worrying about that now, I think we've both said enough to each other to be arrested for talking ill of our beloved leader and country." Gaara said and Sasuke gave him a half smile.

"This was different," Sasuke said softly, "and besides if you want to keep going with all this sentimental talk I'd rather nothing happened to you."

"You forget that _you_ are the only person who ever really injured me, you screwed my perfect record and since then I keep getting injured." Gaara protested.

"This is about your sprained ankle again isn't it?" Sasuke said dryly, "you just don't like to admit that it was an accident and it was your own fault anyway."

"It was not." Gaara said hotly and Sasuke's expression seemed to soften slightly.

"I never wanted you to find this out," He said suddenly.

"Even though you trust me?" Gaara asked sounding slightly confused.

"Because I trust you, I didn't want you to have to lie to everyone and cover this up for me. It's not right." Gaara was about to protest when Sasuke spoke again. "You're the only person I have left." Sasuke said firmly.

And that was it. End of discussion. This afternoon was going to be like one of the many other moments where they showed themselves to be real human beings only for it to be swept under the carpet and never spoken of again.

Gaara watched Sasuke as he picked his bag up again and got ready to move out again. He felt a heaviness on his person that he had never experience before, a sort of sadness, maybe. If he was all Sasuke had now, at least he had people he cared about before.

Whereas for Gaara, Sasuke was the only person he had ever had that he felt he could really rely on and he felt like he was losing him already to the bigger things. Things that they never touched on despite all the other ANBU rules they had broken. Those parts deep inside them that said somewhere that what they were doing was wrong, those parts that had to be ignored. So they packed up and got ready to head towards the Fire Temple to see what other members of the Resistance they could find as it was their job and neither of them knew anything else anymore.


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto sighed. He was lost. Not literally of course, Konoha was too small and he knew it far too well for anything like that, but figuratively he was. He had no idea what to do anymore. He felt restless, tired of doing nothing and he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with himself anymore.

Before the body had turned up he had some idea in his head, Konoha was a rural village and he already worked helping out on one of the farms so he wanted to own a strip of land for himself and then grow enough to live off on top of the food they were seizing for the cities. He would settle down with someone, maybe even Sakura if he was lucky, and that would be it. He wasn't that ambitious, but as a lone orphan whose parents had disappeared into the great unknown, something that was deemed as very suspicious, he had to strive to be accepted all his life. And he had always had in the back of his mind that it would be nice if he could be seen as an upstanding member of the community and maybe even, he hoped, be elected as leader of the village.

Now those dreams seemed terribly small compared to the glimpse of the outside world he had seen, just empty dreams that belonged to someone that didn't know any better, and now he found himself at a loss. He didn't know what he wanted anymore.

Actually, that wasn't true, if he was being honest with himself he knew what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to be useful, not just around the village, now he wanted to make a difference. He wanted to find the Resistance again and ask them if they needed help, no, to demand that they let him help them.

But then there was Sakura, his best friend, the one girl he looked up to, someone that he couldn't leave behind. Or could he for the greater good? And that was the main problem for Naruto. Even if he did leave, before all the problems of actually finding the Resistance, and trying to stay alive while he looked for them, there was Sakura who had always been there for him, who had been the one who'd given him the courage to talk to Shikamaru and the other man in the first place.

He had promised that he'd never leave her and part of him had always loved her ever since they'd met, really loved her not the brother-sister love she seemed to have for him but even if he had never pushed his luck there he had never been able to give her up yet.

But on the other hand, deep down Naruto knew that some part of him wouldn't be satisfied staying here the rest of his life even if by some miracle he could share it with Sakura , not anymore it wouldn't be _right_. He needed to do something even if it meant, inevitably, leaving Sakura, the one person he always counted on to be there, behind.

So it was with a heavy heart, and after a week of thinking about it constantly that Naruto stood at the edge of the village, by the west gate funnily enough where he had arranged to meet Shikamaru. For the first time in his life Naruto was glad he lived alone as he had gathered his belongings over several days and packed up what he felt would be the most important to take in between spending as much of his free time as he could with Sakura. She had laughingly complained that he was always following her around when she wasn't with Tsunade like some kind of lost puppy but Naruto hoped that she'd realise, when he'd gone, that he'd been trying to say goodbye.

He took one last look at the village, taking a moment to look at all the tightly shut up houses, lights winking out of the windows. He couldn't see Sakura's house from here which made it easier to go, to pretend he wasn't leaving her behind for something he didn't know if he would even find, something that might end up killing him.

* * *

><p>Sakura woke up eagerly the next morning. she was going to see Tsunade and had been promised a look at some of Tsunade's work on poisons, because now Tsunade decided it was the best time for Sakura to learn some ways to defend herself, just in case. And, although Sakura liked to think that this was a rather extreme measure, she was excited at the prospect of learning more advanced things from her as even some of the most advanced poisons could be used to save lives in small doses.<p>

She scrambled out of bed and got ready in what was nearly record time for her. She was out the door before her mother had finished preparing breakfast for the day, running out holding a hunk of bread in her hand.

Sakura was surprised that she didn't see Naruto, lately she had always seen him about when she was running to and from Tsunade's but she supposed that, despite his constantly greeting he most mornings now, she must have been too early for him, after all Naruto wasn't exactly known for being a morning person so maybe the many early mornings had finally got to him. Either way she didn't give it anymore thought beyond briefly missing Naruto's morning greeting.

Tsunade smiled at her when Sakura dashed into her workroom, she was already laying some equipment out amongst the journals and papers that were scattered around the surfaces.

"Help me clear this table" She said when Sakura came in and Sakura rushed to do as she asked, organising the papers and clutter for Tsunade to put away. There were a few pieces of paper that Sakura tried to look at in more detail when she saw references to the old Senju family and Sarutobi in particular but Tsunade always seemed to notice when Sakura was dallying and what it was over so she kept encouraging her to hurry up and shoved more, harmless looking, papers in Sakura's arms on top of the other ones.

"Right," Tsunade said giving to room another once over, probably to make sure there was nothing else there Sakura probably shouldn't see. "Poisons." Sakura smiled eagerly up at her.

"So?" She said, "What happens now?"

"Gloves." Tsunade said nodding at the two pairs of linen gloves, "put those on and hand me the other ones, you don't want to be touching this with your bare hands." Sakura nodded and pulled them on, she flexed her hand to test how easy it was to move in the gloves and was surprised to find that unlike the heavy gloves farm workers wore these were easier to move in. Tsunade saw the movement and smiled slightly.

"They're thinner." She said by way of explanation, "It makes for less clumsy accidents when doing this kind of thing, we don't want any spillages." Sakura nodded thoughtfully. Tsunade flicked through her work books until she found the pages she was looking for.

"Alright, shall we begin?" Tsunade asked brightly.

For the next two hours or so Sakura was immersed in the intricate world of poisons as Tsunade went on to explain their uses, effects and how they could be made. Sakura was fascinated by the was Tsunade talked about combining and distilling plants, some that could be used to heal the worst wounds, and how they could be used to take away lives in the most gruesome of way. She learnt how the right mix and dose could be used to cause discomfort, hurt, maim or even kill in its full amount.

They only stopped to take a break when Shizune came in, she looked anxious but Sakura had noticed that, generally, Shizune was a worrier when it came to things so she paid her little notice until Shizune whispered something to Tsunade. Tsunade paused and carefully put down the vial she was holding.

"Are you sure?" She asked softly and Sakura glanced up as Shizune nodded seriously. They both looked over at Sakura who had paused in the distilling of the herbs she had. "Sakura, can you put that down for a moment and come here." Tsunade said. Sakura hesitated before she did as she was told and she took a seat on the chair Tsunade indicated.

"Sakura I have some bad news for you," Shizune said gently, "There's no easy way to say this so I'm just going to come out with it. Naruto's missing."

"What?" Sakura gasped and Tsunade turned away from the other two and dimly Sakura could hear her clattering around with something.

"He's gone Sakura, no one's seen him today. He hasn't turned up for work and someone went to his house and it looks like it's been cleaned out." Shizune continued.

"But-" Sakura began and Shizune shook his head.

"He's just vanished Sakura and some of his things are missing." Shizune said softly.

"Maybe he just went out." Sakura said weakly.

"You know that's not true." Shizune said and Tsunade came up behind them and offered Sakura a steaming mug.

"Tea?" Sakura asked, taking the mug automatically, wrapping her numb fingers round the warm cup.

"Yeah, well, I doubt Shizune would approve if I gave you something a little stronger." Tsunade said and Sakura managed a weak smile.

"You can't drown all your problems in drink." Shizune muttered.

"It doesn't hurt to keep trying," Tsunade said and Shizune rolled her eyes.

"Tell that to your liver." She said with a slight smile. They all fell silent, Shizune and Tsunade scrutinising Sakura so she took a drink to try and avoid making eye contact with either of them.

Naruto was missing. That was something she never thought she'd hear. Something she couldn't bring herself to believe, not while she was sitting in Tsunade's work room, one of the most comforting paces to her surrounded by two people she cared for and trusted. Well trusted as much as she could do these days. Naruto couldn't be gone, he wouldn't have. Naruto would have done anything, fought back as much as she could to get to her as he often said that she was all he had.

A heavy burden maybe but when it came down to it Naruto was the person she depended on the most too, if she had a problem she was more likely to turn to him than her own parents, or even before Tsunade or Shizune for help.

But then again, those past few weeks when he had always been there, watching her with a strange look in his eye. Was that it? Had he known he was going then, was he taken away and knew they were coming for him or had he fled? And couldn't he at least said _something_ to her of all people? It was a hard idea to swallow, especially with such a sympathetic audience looking at her.

"Sakura," Tsunade said softly placing a hand on the younger girls shoulder. "Talk to us."

"What's to say?" Sakura said with a bitter laugh. "I'll never see him again, you know that."

"Sakura," Shizune said again, "It'll help if you talk to us."

"He promised he'd never leave me behind." Sakura said, "Naruto never usually breaks his promises but I guess this one was out of his control. What else is there to say?"

"Anything." Tsunade said. Sakura sighed.

"I guess I just don't know what to think," She said finally and at least that was the truth.

* * *

><p>Later, after she had thought and thought about it, Sakura still wasn't sure what she should be thinking or feeling. It was worse because in a situation like this she would usually try and talk to Naruto about it and he was the one who was no longer there. It was something she was had never even imagined or considered before. How could he just leave her like that, she wondered. Even if it was unfair of her, he could have been forced to go, been taken away, but she still couldn't help feeling betrayed by Naruto's sudden disappearance, like he had let her down somehow.<p>

And then, as the days passed, it was becoming as if Naruto had never lived in the village, as if he had never existed. Sakura still got a few sympathetic looks from Tsunade and Shizune but apart from that nothing. Her parents never addressed the issue of the boy that had spent so much time with them who had vanished one night. Their only response to it was to keep a closer watch on Sakura herself as if she would be the next to go.

After a week or so, once her parents had let up on their constant vigil a bit Sakura plucked up the courage to go to see Naruto's old house. What was inside shocked her, the house had never been the epitome of good housekeeping but even with the odd thing out of place Naruto's home used to be a place of warmth and comfort. Now amongst the upturned furniture and torn up fabrics it looked like it had been completely devastated.

Sakura straightened the chair that still had all of its legs remaining. The others looked like they had been broken up for bits of firewood and Sakura wondered why there was even odd bits of the wooden back supports in the remaining chairs. Did people think that it was less obvious what they were doing if they left Naruto's home with pieces of wood rather than a whole chair?

The small table that she had sometimes shared a meal with Naruto at was missing. It had been a good table, old and worn and second hand like most of Naruto's things here but Sakura had once had every groove and mark committed to memory. From the odd scratches underneath it from the times she had played under it with Naruto, carving odd name or symbol under it. She had scrawled her own name into the wood by one of the legs. Naruto had done his right in the centre under the table top in large capital letters and for a moment Sakura wondered if Naruto had gotten the boy from the abandoned house to write his name in the wood. They had been as close as they could be considering they were both only eight years old and they had been always arguing over something but it had been rare to see one without the other and Sakura could remember watching them together. Naruto had spoken to her a few times then, they were friendly but before that family vanished those two children seemed to exist in their own private world together. While Sakura lived on the same street and played with them on occasion she had felt a little left out when they were together. And Naruto had always been the one that was friendlier to her out of the two anyway. But it was too late to think about that now.

She sat down heavily on the remaining chair and looked at the rest of her surroundings. It was as if everything had been stripped away, anything that could be eaten or used had been taken but there was still a lot of the things that made it Naruto's that remained.

Worn photographs had been left carelessly on the side and it made Sakura slightly sick to her stomach that her neighbours, the people she had lived with and known her entire life had done this to the house.

But then again, her practical side whispered, how could she blame them for gathering the things that would help them survive this free of charge. Things were getting expensive, hard to come by in the country as everything was rerouted to the towns to support the industrial workers there. They had first priority on everything, even the food they grew here in Konoha could be forcibly taken away if they didn't send off the required amount each month. Sakura sighed she didn't know how far she would go herself to survive, whether she'd end up selling someone to ANBU to save herself and her family. Whether she'd plunder someone else's home, a place that she would have maybe spent time, to be able to find something to help her own family survive the winter months, wood for the fire, tiles, things to repair their worn down house. It was certainly possible.

She stood up and pulled her jumper round her more as she shivered, whether due to the cold or the strange atmosphere in the empty house she didn't know. Sakura slowly made her way over to the mantle above the old fireplace, she had never seen it lit as the chimney was apparently blocked by brick or something she had been told after raging winds had caused parts of the brickwork to crumble.

Still, Naruto had used it as a place to keep things, the photographs and odd knickknacks he had collected over the years that brought a small smile to Sakura's face. She could remember each and every one of these things. The rock that with a little imagination looked something like a cat curled up, head in its hands, that Naruto had come running into her house with when she was supposed to be getting ready for bed. He had found it when he was out with, urg, with that boy again whose name still escaped her.

There were some pictures from her birthdays and from his, faded and worn over time. They were both smiling, neither of them really aware of what was to happen in the future in those pictures. Things had been so much simpler then, it had been easier to accept the half truths they had been given as they hadn't known any better.

And now they did, first the disappearance of the family, the factory exploding in the distance, the body on the edge of the village, and now this. Now Naruto was gone.

So, in Naruto's old ransacked home, a place that now held some of Sakura's best and worse memories. She sat, old photographs in hand, and cried for her lost friend.


	8. Chapter 8

It seemed useless. For the past few weeks Sasuke and Gaara had been chasing rumours and speculation and they had seen so much about people, too much maybe. It had become all too easy for people to point the finger at others, to divert the blame elsewhere to save their own skins. They had ended up doing the usual knock on doors in the middle of the night, and old tried and tested ANBU mode of operation but most often, after tearing the doors of their hinges they had left families confused and terrified behind them as they had expected to be taken off or killed and didn't know how to feel when they'd been left alone after a brief but furious interrogation.

Gaara had been strangely amused at the look of shock of people's faces as he and Sasuke left their homes, their families still intact and hadn't made any comments beyond that against Sasuke's disinterest in arresting anyone even if there was a solid suggestion that they weren't happy with the way Fire Country operated anymore. Even after their brief heart to heart of sorts it seemed that Gaara was unable to figure out what Sasuke was thinking even now.

But he had never, in the years they had been together, hurt anyone he didn't have to. It was an odd sort of thing that Gaara had easily recognised because most people in ANBU, himself included, didn't have it. There was some sort of value in life that Sasuke still sought to preserve. It was bizarre and Gaara couldn't understand why, with the world in such a state, Sasuke could still find something to preserve. Gaara though that he would have probably found it laughable in anyone else but Sasuke but he found his partner strangely convincing and he had never seen Sasuke do anything unnecessarily. He never hurt anyone needlessly, preferring to knock them unconscious or target areas that wouldn't give then serious wounds. He had often seen Sasuke look, with some distaste, at the mutilated bodies their co-workers often left behind when they were on clean up duty.

They had moved from the old Fire Temple grounds through neighbourhoods in the industrial towns and run down villages asking if anyone had seen the dark haired man they had found in Konoha, or if anyone recognised the delicate necklace Sasuke had picked up. So far they had had little success with the necklace, no one had recognised it and although they had been told by a former jeweller that it was an old piece, and well made, he had to add, they would be hard pressed to trace its origin or who had made it as it wasn't really a unique design, with no engravings or anything to mark it out as special.

Still with the description of the resistance member and Gaara's own brand of persuasion with Sasuke's odd in put they had managed to get somewhere. Leaving a trail of bewildered and terrified citizens behind them they had, without knowing, managed to scare people out of helping the Resistance because somehow having two ANBU operatives storm into your home in the early hours of the morning, demanding answers and then leaving the family a bit battered but still intact was more unnerving than the expectation of death it seemed.

Not that either of them knew they had caused the sudden drop in support for the Resistance, those people were fully prepared for death but not an almost apologetic mix of menace and questions after they were shortly dragged out of bed, besides most people got out of their encounter with most of their fingers intact once they started talking. As they both knew that it was the most effective way to get reliable information and Gaara wasn't squeamish about these things at all even if Sasuke felt able to show more hesitance to his partner, maybe even his sort of friend, about these things after all they'd been through.

It was frustrating though, with no clear leads they were stuck just aimlessly wandering the place and as neither Sasuke nor Gaara were the type to slow down and enjoy the countryside so they just ended up feeling irritable. As it were they were stuck in a small town midway between the countryside Konoha resided in and the cluster of heavily built up industrial cities that sprawled across what was probably once a picturesque piece of the country. Now they had spread outwards to contain the overspill population and new factories that belched out smoke so they were almost running into each other.

From the small town Sasuke and Gaara could look out to see a thick cloud of smoke creating an almost permanent haze on the once side and then the fresh looking country on the other. It was an odd place, an outpost of sorts between the two radically different places that had developed over the years of Danzo's reign separating the farm hands from the industrial workers to a point where they seemed almost alien to each other.

They had stopped here as they had reasoned that most people still travelling would have to pass through a place like this so they should, theoretically, be able to get some solid information at last.

And it worked to a certain extent, they had found someone who happily admitted to seeing someone of the body's description after they had posed as some concerned friends. Sasuke couldn't help being slightly amused at Gaara's pretend friendly expression it seemed so wrong on his face but the man they were asking for assistance didn't seem to notice.

The people here were strangely helpful, maybe they were so used to seeing people come and go that any disappearances could simply be dismissed, put away in a dark corner of their mind they never examined. Whatever the reason it was useful and they found that the man had come from one of the industrial suburbs that were a day or two's travel away, and at last, to both Sasuke and Gaara's relief they seemed to have a starting point.

Then, at last, a week later they had a name, Asuma Sarutobi, and with that they suddenly realised why this man had been hunted down so persistently by ANBU before they got there, even if he was a just distant relation of one of the former Hokage's he would be a dangerous rallying point if word got out. It meant everything could change.

And it did. Things changed the exact moment Sasuke and Gaara knocked on the door of the house Asuma was reported to be staying in, when the door swung open and they were greeted by a woman, still young but certainly older than both of them, with a small bump where she was carrying a child. Asuma's child.

"Can I help you?" She asked pleasantly and strangely Sasuke felt his stomach clench with unease, it looked like she didn't know anything about what had happened.

"You know someone called Asuma Sarutobi?" Gaara asked bluntly and the woman's face closed up. "I'll take that as a yes." Gaara said, the woman seemed to automatically move her hands to shield her stomach. Sasuke looked at the gesture fixedly, his gaze fixed of the protective gesture.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked softly but the woman flinched slightly.

"I-" She stuttered.

"Can we just come in?" Sasuke asked, "you don't want us to have this conversation on your doorstep." The woman stepped back and indicated that they could come in with a wave of her hand, but it was shaking slightly and Sasuke didn't know if she was scared of them or what they would bring to her. Sasuke and Gaara followed her into the small but perfectly tidy house. There were odd plants everywhere, well tended to in pots and vases on different surfaces.

"What do you want from me?" She said turning to face them in a hard voice, her earlier fear seemed to have left her and both the ANBU agents felt a grudging respect for the women who was so ready to face them. So instead of the usual questions they had been asking about Asuma and the Resistance Sasuke heard something else coming out of his mouth.

"That man, Asuma Sarutobi, he's dead." The woman gave a horrified gasp and she went completely white. Sasuke stepped forward and took her arm, and eased her back to sit on the sprawling couch that was worn and sagging in places. They said nothing to comfort her, neither of them would know what to say even if they wanted to, but for the first time they really saw the impact of what their job left behind. It wasn't just the scared families as someone was dragged away with them but that they were always left behind, grieving for someone they didn't quite know what had happened to whether they were dead or imprisoned they were still lost to them. Neither of them had been forced to consider those left behind, like the child this woman was carrying that would never see or hear it's father.

"Why are you telling me this?" She asked taking more deep breaths as she rubbed her hand over her stomach.

"I don't know," Sasuke said and she turned and looked, for the first time, straight at Sasuke's face, her mouth twisted into a strange bitter expression.

"You're so young." She said and Sasuke jerked back, he couldn't help it, there was something strange, almost comforting in her voice, something he wasn't used to anymore. She looked at Gaara as well and the younger man shifted slightly under her gaze. "Both of you, what have they done to you?"

"What makes you think we didn't ask for this?" Gaara asked, folding his arms and she smiled softly at him.

"That question, and your eyes." She said.

"What's your name?" Sasuke asked again, as he could see that, if pushed, Gaara would demonstrate how much he could enjoy his job on the woman between them.

"Kurenai, I'm," She paused "I was going to be Asuma's wife one day." She said and Sasuke thought about the figure they had found partially frozen in the snow, blood strewn around him. The woman before him didn't need to know anything about that, and for the first time, Sasuke wondered why they were here. Why they had to relentlessly pursue any roots they could find of the members of the Resistance, to try and find more members they were connected to and destroy more families.

"There's no need to ask who you too are," Kurenai continued breezily, "I knew it was only a matter of time before ANBU came knocking on our-" She finally faltered slightly "my, door. Although I confess I always thought Asuma would be with me then." She sighed, "Still, won't you at least tell me your names?"

"Why?" Sasuke asked and Kurenai frowned at him.

"Don't I have a right to know whose tracked us down to be able to, well who found me, you asked my for my name after all."

"No," Sasuke said and for the first time in years he felt his age, still as a young and slightly awkward young man instead of the hardened killer he had been trained to be. "I'm mean, if you knew you'd eventually get found why did you even join or associate with the Resistance?" Gaara shot him a hard look, this was outside of the usual line of questioning. Reasons didn't matter to Danzo, only stopping the Resistance in its tracks did.

"Because this isn't right, and I always hoped that maybe some child of mine would be able to live in a world that isn't so messed up." She said softly running her hand over her stomach. Sasuke and Gaara stared at her as if she was some sort of foreign object. Kurenai smiled slightly to herself and then she reached out to take Sasuke's hand, he was too stunned to protest.

"Here," She said gently, pressing Sasuke's hand to her firm stomach, it felt oddly firm and then there was _something_. "Did you feel that?" She asked, "The baby's moving." Sasuke pulled away wordlessly and Kurenai beckoned Gaara to come towards her and to Sasuke's amazement the other man did just that and allowed her to place his hand over where the baby was still fidgeting.

It was strange how she let them do it, let their hands that had killed and punished so many people feel the life growing inside her.

"I think this little blob is worth protecting." Sasuke looked at her in disbelief and she gave them a shy smile, thinking that it was because of the name she called her baby that she was getting the strange look. "We never wanted them to guess the name of the sex, we wanted a surprise so Asuma and I used to call it a blob growing inside me and it sort of stuck. It's better than 'it' at least." Out of the corner of his eye Sasuke could see Gaara flex his hand slightly, almost thoughtfully.

"You're not scared of us," Sasuke said quietly.

"What more could you do to me now Asuma's gone?" Kurenai asked.

"So much." Sasuke said softly but neither he nor Gaara made a move towards her.

"Does it matter anymore?" Kurenai said hollowly, "Without Asuma do these things have to matter to me anymore?"

"Yes." Gaara said suddenly. "Because he died for whatever cause you have and most of all you should be running for your life to protect yourself and your _child_." Kurenai starred at Gaara and then bowed her head slightly, Sasuke didn't look at this partner, however much he might want to it was best not to react to whatever outburst Gaara had it sounded a little personal and Gaara never liked it when people began to pry.

"I was so looking forward to going through all this with Asuma," Kurenai said rubbing her hand across her stomach, "The birth, crawling, first words, first steps. I'm not sure how I could even do that alone when he was meant to be with me every step of the way." She smiled but this time it was without bitterness.

"Then why was he away from you now?" Sasuke asked. Kurenai sighed.

"One last mission." She said, "I joked about that, I said he could never have just one more mission and stop there, he really lived for, believed that he was doing the right thing, that eventually he'd have a new world for our baby to grow up in. I think I always believed in Asuma more than the Resistance itself, it's funny Asuma was meant to be back soon so they'll probably send someone out to look for him now it probably shows you how bad things are as despite their best efforts I get told by ANBU that Asuma's dead before his friends tell me."

"They might not know yet." Sasuke said suddenly and Kurenai made an odd noise that was part way between a scoff and a sob.

"They don't tell us anything unless they have to. I'll admit to helping the Resistance," She added defiantly, looking them both in the eye in turn, "I've gone on missions for then, I've leafleted, appealed for support I've even fought ones of you when I've had to, don't think I've been taking a back seat in it all. It's only recently I stopped."

"When you found out you were pregnant." Gaara said and Kurenai nodded.

"We hadn't told anyone else yet, maybe we should have it might have stopped them sending him off on some stupid mission." Sasuke thoughtfully fingered the necklace in his pocket.

"We found him in Konoha, " He said, "if it helps you, he was far out from here, we don't know where he came from, we were just to collect-" Sasuke paused, "collect him after he got away, but there were a few tracks for us to follow and it looked like he had travelled some way before ending up there."

"Dying there." Kurenai said and Sasuke nodded, "You don't have to shy away from the word, I've seen it. I've seen so much of it now and I am sort of proud of him. He died doing something he believed in, I should be more than proud of him." Sasuke drew the necklace out of his pocket and Gaara watched him thoughtfully.

"Here, is this yours?" Sasuke asked and Kurenai gently took it from him and ran the delicate chain through her fingers.

"No, it's not mine. Why do you think it is?" She asked and Sasuke felt slightly awkward, something Gaara didn't seem to acknowledge or maybe even care about the implications of finding someone else's necklace near someone who was practically married to another woman.

"Sasuke found it near Asuma's body." He said simply and if Sasuke hadn't seen and done half the things he'd experienced as a member of ANBU he might have actually flinched at Gaara's insensitivity. But then again it wasn't like they had ever learnt about these sorts of matters. Emotions were to be completely suppressed, nonexistent not encouraged for matters if delicate enquiry like this.

"I see." Kurenai said evenly. And they sat awkwardly together, neither Sasuke or Gaara knew what to say so they said nothing but the silence they were so used to together felt uncomfortable with Kurenai there. "Is there any chance it could have from anywhere else?"

"No one else had seen the body." Gaara said and for some reason Kurenai turned to Sasuke and suddenly under her watchful gaze he felt as if he was five years old with his mother looking disapprovingly down on him again.

"Is that true?" She asked and for the first time in a long time Sasuke through of the letters scrawled in the snow.

But from Konoha? That scrap of a village, it had once boasted some sort of former glory but now all that was left of it was a few clustered houses and shops together amongst the wide expanses of farmland. Older structures had been left to ruin if they were made of stone or dismantled for firewood, the people in the country were nothing but practical there, they had no room for sentimentality so how could such a delicate looking necklace have come from there.

Still Kurenai's expression moved Sasuke to respond.

"No," He said at last, "Someone else might have seen it." Gaara gave him a sharp look.

Someone who had written a message for a dying man in the snow, someone who had been stupid enough to do that despite the threat of ANBU raid looming over them, someone who was probably cloyingly sentimental enough to have a necklace like this and hold onto it when everything else was being sold off to buy survival, it was probably one of those things that had _meaning_.

"Who?" Gaara asked sharply and Sasuke shrugged.

"There was something written in the snow." Gaara narrowed his eyes at that.

"And it conveniently slipped your mind before did it?" He asked icily shifting slightly to square up to Sasuke. Sasuke stood up to face him properly. They were about the same height when they were both standing but as he had been sitting down with Kurenai Sasuke had been given the impression of Gaara towering over him. Something he didn't like at all.

"No, if you must know I deliberately didn't tell you." Sasuke said clearly and the anger in Gaara's eyes blazed. He didn't ask why, they both knew the answer was because Sasuke didn't fully trust him and it went the other way too. Neither of them fully believed in the other, they trusted each other enough to look out for each other in a fight or against other ANBU teams but they would never fully put their faith in each other.

"Don't," Kurenai said softly but it was said sternly enough to make them stop and take notice of her. "You shouldn't fight amongst each other, not amongst friends, it's the biggest problem we have in the Resistance."

"We're not in the Resistance." Sasuke said firmly.

"And we're not friends." Gaara said after him and Kurenai gave them both a measuring look.

"I don't believe that." She said.

"Forming emotional connections with people will only become a liability in the long run," Sasuke said, and it sounded almost like he was quoting something. Kurenai was shocked.

"Is that what you're taught?" She asked, "as ANBU?" She looked sickened. "Dear God, no wonder we have you all wrong. People need people you know." Gaara snorted and looked away but Sasuke continued to watch the other man thoughtfully.

"People find it too easy to lie, cheat and betray other people," Gaara said firmly shooting Sasuke a sharp look, "why would we depend on something so unreliable as other people." He turned and left the room and Sasuke gave Kurenai and almost apologetic look when the front door slammed.

"Sorry," She said, "it looks like I may have gotten you in the middle of something." She carefully pulled herself off the sofa and Sasuke stepped forward to steady her but she batted him away. "Please, I'm fine, what is it with men and pregnant women every one of them seems to think that you lose the ability to act for yourself once you get past a certain weight." She gave Sasuke a slight smile. "Are you going to be okay, with your friend?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to correct her again but decided that if she didn't listen the first time it was unlikely that she would again.

"He'll come back." He said eventually.

"Really because he seemed pretty angry with you to me," Kurenai said and she disappeared into another room that Sasuke guessed was the kitchen from all the clattering she did in there.

"Really," Sasuke said. "Neither of us has anyone else to go to anyway." Kurenai walked back into the living room.

"I'm sorry," She said and then gave him a bright smile. "Now if he's coming back here do you want to help me make dinner so we can have something when he comes back, I don't have much but I have sure learnt how to stretch food over the past few years, I think I've got some stock somewhere so how about stew?"

"What?" Sasuke asked slightly alarmed by the sudden change of conversation.

"Dinner?" Kurenai said again, "don't you want to stay?"

Sasuke stared at her. All his life they had been told that the Resistance were weak, always to the point of crumbling and were just running around without a plan forcing Danzo to waste time and effort but in that moment Sasuke though that ANBU had it wrong. These people were formidable and seemed to have no sense of fear. Who else would invite one, no two, known ANBU agents to eat with them.

He accepted, it was a nice gesture and he felt slightly strange to receive such kindness from a woman after he'd told her that her partner was dead, but it was hard to shake old habits and, although he helped her out in the kitchen, it was more to check that she wasn't planning on poisoning them or anything than out of kindness. Luckily, Kurenai didn't notice the scrutiny he gave her ingredients, or maybe she was used to weird habits, either way she didn't comment on it.


	9. Chapter 9

Gaara stalked down the streets and narrow alleyways ducking past the industrial workers as they changed shifts from day to night at the ringing of the bell. He was angry. He knew that much, anger was an emotion he easily recognised but he didn't know why, and there was something else. Why was he so angry at Sasuke? Because he didn't trust him?

Of course Sasuke didn't trust him they were taught never to trust anyone, to turn your partner in without batting an eye if you had to and yet, some small part of Gaara, screaming to be heard, was insisting that he had always expected more from Sasuke. After everything they had shared with each other, the odd comments, the talks about family, he had maybe dared to hope that Sasuke trusted him a bit more than that. That maybe they had the potential to be friends.

Gaara stomped down that thought as soon as it floated to the forefront of his mind. He was being ridiculous to even think such things. Ridiculous to even hope that things could be different than just endless missions. Facing anger, tears and depression wherever they went with whichever partner he was assigned to. That's all Sasuke was, an assigned partner, and Gaara had somehow managed to get himself – attached, and that was what was completely ridiculous. He had never done it before, he had even turned over his former partners to interrogation for the slightest comment and Sasuke, he had just let things slide after a while, even said some things that he, himself, could get imprisoned for.

And for what? For nothing. He should have known people always let you down, he had seen it countless times with so-called friend turning against so-called friend. Everyone talked after a few broken bones.

However, despite everything he didn't want that for Sasuke, the interrogation that would come, the questions Gaara would also face. It didn't seem worth it especially as Gaara had no feelings what so ever towards the cause they were supposed to be fighting for. Some of the ANBU officers seemed so passionate about protecting Danzo's regime to the point where it was fanatical, they were determined to root out any problem no matter the cost. Others revelled in the fear and power their position gave them. For Gaara it was just a means to an end and he wondered what Sasuke genuinely thought of what they were doing. All he really knew about the other man was that he took his job seriously and seemed to put some sort of value on people's lives, a strange combination in ANB that was for sure.

He was still angry, but for once he wanted the complete honest to God truth from Sasuke, so he turned on his heel and began stalking back through the streets towards Kurenai's home. He would track his partner from there if he needed to, if Sasuke had already left without him.

Gaara slipped silently through the fairly empty streets. He didn't hide, that brought more suspicions than it needed to and technically he and Sasuke would have a hard time coming up with a reason for being in the town that ANBU would actually accept. Instead he just walked past people as if he belonged in the place and for the most part people didn't question it, pretend you had a right to be there and people assumed you did for the most part, and if he was questioned, well the mood Gaara was in he would happily take the time to rip someone's head off, metaphorically or otherwise.

Gaara was surprised to find the lights still on in Kurenai's home, the few candles he could see through the thin curtains had burnt low but there were hushed voices inside. It looked like he was in luck and Sasuke hadn't left yet and for a moment he felt almost glad before the anger returned again in full force. So he responded the only way he knew how, the way he had been taught. By bursting through the front door, grabbing Sasuke and slamming him to the floor, a tried and frequently tested ANBU technique for getting the upper hand by surprising and disabling the most powerful figure there.

He was surprised once again when Sasuke didn't fight back. He would have known how to escape something like that if he wanted to.

"You're back," Sasuke said instead, wincing slightly at the force Gaara had used to throw him down.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Gaara snarled, ignoring Sasuke. "Why did you lie to me like that? Did you have any idea how I'd feel about that?" Sasuke raised one eyebrow as Kurenai hovered near them, she looked concerned.

"Frankly? No." Sasuke said calmly, "You always say you can't feel, that you don't know how to." That Sasuke used his own words back at his only served to annoy Gaara more. He drew back his fist and punched Sasuke instead of saying anything else and then he pulled away, taking a few steps back from Sasuke who sat up carefully, gingerly touching the part of his jaw Gaara had struck.

"Fine." Sasuke said, his own temper flaring "You're upset, I get that. I lied to you and you're upset but did you really expect me to tell you the truth?"

"I'm not upset." Gaara insisted.

"Oh really," Sasuke hissed, "then why did you leave?" Gaara faltered slightly and Kurenai took the time to cut in.

"We saved you some dinner if you want something," She said stepping between them and placing a hand on Gaara's shoulder, he shook her off.

"I want you to tell me something honestly for once," Gaara demanded and Sasuke just looked at him evenly. "What do you think we're doing here, with all this?" Sasuke sighed and looked away from Gaara.

"I don't know." He said.

"You don't know?"

"No! How am I supposed to know what we're doing anymore, following who ever owned this necklace just seemed right that's all I thought that maybe, I don't know-" He broke off awkwardly.

"Maybe what?" Gaara asked angrily, "Don't stop now just because you might actually tell me the truth for once."

"You're one to talk," Sasuke snapped and he scrambled to his feet and stepped forward, forcing Kurenai to take a few steps back herself to get out of their way. "You say _I _don't tell you anything, I know nothing about you, you pretend that you don't feel anything! I don't even know what you think but you _enjoy_ what we do, or you did. I read your file when we were partnered up. You specialised in executions. You had a perfect record for finding people and killing them and it was months before I even saw a flicker of _anything_ human in you." Gaara opened his mouth to cut Sasuke off but Sasuke kept going.

"You want honesty? Fine. I've watched my entire family die before me and everyone thought it was strange that I would want to preserve some people's lives, that at first I genuinely thought this would help us, that in the long run ANBU could help protect more people, and what a joke that turned out to be. We just destroy more families and I hate myself for it because we can't stop now, if we do anything else they'll kill us, you know they will" Sasuke snapped and Gaara swallowed thickly. Sasuke was breathing heavily and an almost oppressive silence fell over the room.

Kurenai stood quietly to the side, looking between the two of them, this was something she knew she couldn't get involved with now but she hoped that, somehow, these two strange ANBU operatives would be able to work something out. To be able to admit they were only human and needed other people. After all it was the small changes that mattered, at least according to Asuma, if you could make lots of small changes then they would eventually add up into something bigger, something good. And it was those words of his that was all she had left to hold on to now.

"You hate it." Gaara said flatly and Sasuke nodded jerkily.

"So what?" Sasuke said spreading his hands out in a helpless gesture. "You enjoy it." Gaara looked away a strange and uncomfortable feeling creeping over him. He looked at Kurenai who was watching them with actual concern in her eyes, to the table he could see through the doorway. It was set for three people. She was being completely stupid or naive, to have welcomed them into her home so easily when all they had brought her was bad news and brought all of her friends the threat of death or imprisonment, and yet some part of Gaara was sort of touched by her actions?

"Maybe because I never knew anything else, this is normal for me remember." Gaara said stonily still studying the table. Sasuke would have helped, that much he knew, his partner wouldn't be the type to let a pregnant woman do everything, especially if he felt some guilt for burying the father of her unborn child in some woods in the back end of nowhere.

"Maybe you could still learn?" Kurenai said softly, her voice was hoarse from keeping quiet for so long but in the sudden silence it was loud enough to make an impact. Gaara jerked slightly, involuntarily. "It's still not too late."

Naruto shivered slightly. There was a cold wind blowing through the streets and the alley he had ducked into was fairly open, letting the strong breeze rattle through it easily, momentarily picking up lose boards and planks, rocking them slightly. He was hungry, but he had been hungry the past few days. Recently, he had only really been able to eat odd bits of food and small meals in exchange for some small acts of labour and farm work.

It was difficult for Naruto, not the lack of food, he had gotten used to that. But to keep himself and others safe he found himself constantly lying to the people he met, he was moving, there was no work where he lived anymore, he had come from the other side of the country, yes where all those new factories were meant to be but he couldn't work there, and no he didn't know what it was they were producing, it was still all very hush hush.

He was now fairly far away from Konoha and, for lack of a better thing to do, he had headed in the same direction it looked like the dead man, like Asuma he corrected himself, had come from. So far though, he had come up with nothing. No signs of ANBU, no signs of the so-called Resistance, if they even existed, and so far no one willing to talk to him beyond the typical shallow pleasantries and exchanges and even those were getting few and far between.

Now he found himself in a small outpost somewhere between the edge of the country and the many industrial towns after doing a loop round the area Konoha was situated in. He had listened to people in every place he had been to. Never questioning anybody he just got used to lurking in places listening out for anything people said to one another but every place was just like Konoha, in the fact, everyone was too scared to talk to each other anywhere it seemed. So he had come up with nothing.

Still, Naruto was nothing but optimistic at heart so he at least felt that by being out somewhere looking for something or someone was better than being at home doing nothing. He felt strangely liberated by it all, by being able to do something _he_ wanted to do for a change despite being stuck in the same routine in Konoha. As much as he felt loyal to his hometown, people were trapped in places forced into whatever role Danzo shaped for them at the time whether industrial, working on the farms or in those new factories far to the west that did whatever they did – nobody knew.

He leant back on the wall and sighed. He had to admit that after all this travelling around and finding nothing it was a little disheartening and he was now at a loss of where to try now, what course of action to take. And he began to wonder what he could do to really help people, to try and bring some sort of change for the better. He never thought things through, Naruto smiled almost bitterly, it was something Sakura had always told him, he never thought, he had always acted impulsively, emotionally and previously it had been Sakura who had kept him in check, made sure he didn't speak out of turn or act in a way that could lead to him being taken away.

And now without Sakura with him to curb his impulses he would have to be even more careful, he had always had a talent for getting into trouble but now he was older the tolerance that was given to the ignorance of youth had gone and he was more likely to be regarded with suspicion or reported if he acted out of the norm, if he was too interested, if he asked too many questions. He knew he had to guard his actions and words carefully but part of him wondered if he really cared. Would he be able to intervene if he saw something he thought was wrong, or would he stand to one side and watch it happen as they had all been forced into seeing as the right thing to do?

Naruto supposed he'd have to wait and see.

It turned out he didn't have to wait for long. After he had been standing there for a while, contemplating his next move, watching his breath turn to smoke in the air in front of him Naruto heard some sort of scuffle in the street nearby.

He frowned and listened carefully, there was definitely something going on, he wasn't sure what. After a few moments he thought he could at least make an educated guess as to where the noise was coming from so he pushed himself off the wall and went left. After a while he met a dead end and almost cursed out loud, he should have gone right, although he was now very close to the noises, it sounded almost like a fight, he had reached a dead end and would have to backtrack to work his way round.

There were a few thuds followed by a low groan of pain and Naruto turned to hurry back and find a new way round when something caught his eye. The brick on the surrounding buildings were old, crumbled in places and there were odd pieces missing, enough gaps to make a potential foothold. Without thinking of the consequences, as he had no Sakura to act as his conscience now either, Naruto managed to find a place to grab onto in the brickwork and pull himself up. It was probably hard going, but Naruto didn't notice, and nor would he remember when he came to retell this moment later, but the rush of adrenaline, the excitement he got for actually being able to do something, was enough to help propel him upwards quickly and, in what seemed like no time at all, Naruto hurled himself over the wall.

He landed, stumbling slightly in front of two men, there was a third hunched over wheezing on the floor. Naruto would have like to tell people, when he was retelling this in years to come, that the two men looked shocked or even awestruck by his arrival but their expressions never flickered.

"What do you think you're doing?" Naruto demanded, and his hands shook slightly in a mix of fear and was that eagerness as well. He couldn't say for sure.

"This is none of your business child." One of the men said.

"If you leave now we might forget all about this little incident." Said the other and Naruto bristled as the first man turned to his companion and they began talking over him.

"Will we?" He hissed, "Why don't we just kill him now, teach him a lesson?"

"He won't learn anything dead," The second man said, "if he doesn't go, just break some bones and leave him." Naruto felt a chill go down his spine, there was something really wrong with the way they could talk so matter-of-factly about this. Still, he tried to steal his nerves.

"You didn't answer me," Naruto said, and he was pleased that the anger kept his voice steady, "so I'll ask you again, _what the hell do you think you're doing?_" The two men smirked and the taller of the two stepped forward.

"We'll look what we have here," He said, "A cocky little brat who wants to play with the grown-ups."

Naruto glared at him and glanced back at the older man behind him, he was breathing awkwardly, clutching at his ribs and there were patches of blood visible on his clothes, and those were growing in size as he kept bleeding.

"How dare you?" Naruto shouted, and he lunged forward fist raised at the man who mocked him earlier. The man took a step back, raising his arm so Naruto's blow was deflected and he stumbled, overbalancing, and all it took was for the man to give him a shove from behind for Naruto to go sprawling on the floor. He and his companion just laughed as Naruto picked himself back up off the ground.

Naruto turned round, angrier than before. He could do this, he assured himself, straightening and then turning around to face the same man again. He had gotten into fights when he was younger, much younger, with boys older than him who had found some fun in either teasing him or Sakura. He had learnt persistence and endurance from those scraps in Konoha and often he had walked away, bloody, bruised but successful. And now this was one fight he knew he couldn't afford to lose.

So he took a few steps closer to him, remembering a distantly a comment Tsunade had made when she had been patching him up one time. He had ran too obviously at his opponent then, as he had just now, and she said anyone could see his punch coming a mile off. He edged closer to the man, who was still smirking at him, and drew back his arm widely to aim for his head again, the man caught his arm once again, easily, but missed the other fist that followed that Naruto aimed for his stomach, ramming it in hard and hearing some satisfaction from the way the man's breath faltered on impact and the faint look of surprise of his face.

"Oh, you are going to regret ever doing that." His partner said taking a step forward and Naruto hastily tried to put some distance between them.

"Wait," The other man gasped, "Leave it to me Zaku." Zaku snorted but still backed away from Naruto, then he spotted the older man who had gotten up without any of them noticing and way trying to stagger away.

"Hey," Zaku said and in what looked like a flash he was by the other man and had apparently struck him to the floor. Naruto shifted uncomfortably, he hadn't even seen the man move or go to hit the man. He suddenly wondered what he had gotten into, and realised why ANBU were so feared across Fire Country, these men, they didn't even seem human.

The unnamed man appeared in front of Naruto, moving a lot faster than he had before, and Naruto stumbled backwards a few steps, realising that earlier the man had been only toying with him. Naruto swallowed, he had done it again, his rashness had gotten him into trouble and this time Sakura wasn't there to pull him out of it. He had to deal with this himself.

Naruto studied the other man thoughtfully, now Naruto wasn't attacking he was standing casually waiting for Naruto's next move. Naruto dashed forward and feigned right before moving quickly to the left and brought his arm up to slam it into the man's head, catching him round the side of his face, making his ears ring and while he was unbalanced Naruto slammed his elbow into the back of the other man's head.

He could do this, Naruto thought grimly, but as Naruto brought his leg up to strike the man he caught it, stopping Naruto in his tracks and yanking his leg to pull him off balance. Naruto stumbled to the floor and the man took this advantage to kick him in the ribs. Naruto coughed slightly as he was struck again and again.

He could do this, Naruto thought again, if he could get up he could try again. Naruto shifted so he could block the next kick and lashed out with his feet to try and trip the man up. He almost succeeded and managed to stagger to his feet, ready to strike again when his partner stepped in.

"Let me do this Dozu," Zaku said and Naruto gulped. But he tried to hide it, and steeled himself for the next onslaught.

"No," Dozu said, his eyes glinting maliciously, "I can finish this little runt." Zaku ignored him and stood next to his partner and Naruto had the chilling realisation that even if he managed to evade one of them the other would probably get to him anyway.

Still, that didn't mean that he wouldn't go down without a fight and if he had taken some of their time to spare the other man then Naruto was at least content that he would at least have tried to do something good. Naruto paused for a moment before recklessly throwing himself at Dozu, reasoning that after the few hits Naruto had gotten in that that man was the marginally weaker of the two.

He reeled backwards, struck by- he didn't know who and was hit again. He fell and braced himself to get up again as Zaku raised his fist again and then froze. Next to him Dozu had vanished and Naruto saw that he had somehow been ripped away from his companion and had been thrown into a wall.

"Heh," Zaku said, now looking unperturbed that his partner had been cast aside so easily. "I knew this would happen, you start hunting around hard enough and one of you Resistance bastards always turns up."

"You mean because you always beat an innocent person into confessing to be one of us," Someone said stepping out of the shadows, and Naruto frowned, he recognised that voice. "Your methods of finding us are really good in that respect are they?" It was Kiba. Naruto felt a sudden wave of relief, he had found them, or rather they had found him.


	10. Chapter 10

Sakura let out a long sigh, twisting her pencil between her fingers as she stared blankly at the scrolls in front of her. The diagrams and words just blurring together as she looked down at them. She felt restless, bored and felt the loss of her closest friend more keenly than ever. She had gone days without Naruto before, especially in the Summers when he had to help out with long days on different farms selling his labour during the busiest time. But after weeks of trying not to think of the worst case scenario, and pretending that she didn't have some small hope that he would appear sheepishly on the corner he always used to wait on as she rushed to Tsunade's with a sheepish expression and an apology that it had been so long.

"Is studying anatomy not doing it for you today?" Shizune asked and Sakura's head jerked up, she hadn't heard the other woman come in.

"What?" She said and Shizune smiled kindly at her. "Sorry." Sakura added sheepishly. Shizune shook her head slightly as she pulled up another chair to sit opposite Sakura.

"What's wrong?" She asked and Sakura tried to look slightly puzzled at the question, Shizune sat back and fixed Sakura with a firm look.

"Come on, it's obvious your mind isn't on learning this," She said tapping one on the scrolls, "it might help if you tell me about it."

"Yeah," Sakura said bitterly and, for once, without thinking, "because we really live in a time that captures the spirit of openness and all that." Shizune leaned over and took Sakura's hand on both of hers.

"I know," She said softly, "but Sakura, you can talk to me, you know that right?" The sad part was that Sakura wasn't sure if she could, not really. But she allowed herself to admit one thing.

"I just really miss Naruto." She said, and it came out as an almost whisper. And after she had said it Sakura realised just how much it was true and tears pricked at the corner of her eyes. "It's just hard to be without him, I never thought it would happen and-" She faltered, _I think it might be my fault_, she thought but she couldn't say it.

If she had, by encouraging Naruto to trust his instincts and do what he felt was the right thing, then maybe she had gotten him into trouble, was it better for him to be safe at home with her and maybe living with a sort of disquiet he could never put to rest. At least she knew he was _living_ then. Or was it better for someone like Naruto to live as he pleased and die the way he wanted to, on his own terms.

Sakura really didn't know. She felt like she didn't know anything anymore. She didn't even know if he was really dead or not, but either way people knew that once someone left a place they never really came back, and she still felt as if the blame for his disappearance could be laid at her feet.

As selfish as it was she often wondered if maybe it would have been better for her to crush all ideas of talking to people, of honesty out of Naruto, at least then she could have kept her friend. Although she knew, deep down, that Naruto would never be happy that way, not really. He had always tried to challenge things, as a child he had often argued with Tsunade, saying that he had a better way of running Konoha and she had indulged him, to an extent, Tsunade had never been above cracking him over the head if he got too pushy with her.

"I know Sakura, despite everything no one's expecting you to remain unaffected by this," Shizune said softly.

"And yet I'm still expected to go on as if nothing's changed, as if I haven't just lost my best friend." Sakura muttered. "It's been nearly three months and I always seem to be hoping that maybe it had all been a mistake and he'd come back to me. Every morning, every time I pass his house, when I don't see him in the street when I usually do, when he's not out working the farms with everyone else."

"Sakura," Shizune said carefully, "You should know that if Naruto could come back he probably would have by now, he loves you, you know that."

"Yes," Sakura said with a heavy heart, that's what had made it worse.

Naruto had loved her in a way she felt unable to respond to. He had loved her as his best friend and never pushed it further than that but there was always a little something more behind it that Sakura had always put out of her mind. He was, _is_, her closest friend, her brother, and that was all and she had always hoped, that after Naruto had depended on her after losing his other friend, that it was something he would grow out of.

It was another one of those things they never really talked about, along with everything else from Danzo to the state of the village, and it was only now that Sakura realised that there had been so many missed opportunities. She trusted Naruto, she could have made passing comments about how she felt people were so unhappy but to scared to say. It was when people were sick and she was doing rounds with Shizune or Tsunade that she could see the unspoken desperation and sometimes, worse or all, the relief when someone didn't have long to live as they believed that they'd be going to a much better place a place of plentiful food where they would meet all their lost friends.

They should have spoken about the feelings everyone insisted he had for her, most of the time Sakura could convince herself otherwise, but at times she could see something else behind his actions or words and they should have resolved this long ago. She should have explained that she was looking for something more, she just wasn't sure what it was yet. But that maybe she wanted something similar to Tsunade, who have loved someone so deeply she couldn't even comprehend starting a relationship with someone else just for the convenience of having a man around and not being asked how a woman was coping alone.

In short, Sakura felt like her life had become to fall apart ever since they had found that body in the village. And even then she knew it was ridiculous to even consider blaming all this on the man who had the misfortune to have been forced to walk, trailing blood, to her little village especially when he probably knew he was dying.

Now, without even knowing it, Sakura was suffering the same crisis as Naruto had been. She didn't know what to do anymore, how she could do more than healing the odd hurt and taking away pain for people, which seemed like such small kindnesses in the grand scheme of things. And part of her wondered that if that man had survived and come into to the village seeking medical help if people would have brought Tsunade to him or turned him away, and she wondered if Tsunade would have turned him away herself.

Sakura had always the greatest respect for her teacher but fear did things to people, it made then change and it forced them to do things they were later ashamed of, and if she regretted being too scared to talk to Naruto about the unspoken thing between them, his feelings for her, then turning away a dying man would be worse.

She wondered if she'd be too scared to help him herself and a part of her thought that she would be which made her feel worse because she had always thought she had been, somewhat, a good person. And now she wondered if she wasn't because what sort of person would consider denying someone help when they obviously needed it, and how had things gotten so bad that people had to think that way, that it was easier to turn away from a problem than face it head on.

"Sakura," Shizune said, jerking her out of her revere, "I know there's a lot you wish you could change in this situation but you have to try to accept that you just can't. Naruto left. Whether it was on his own accord or not he's gone, and there's nothing you can do anymore. I know it's hard for you but the most we can do is make it easier for the people we have around us."

Shizune sighed and sat back in her chair, she looked blankly out of the window for a moment, at the almost white winter sky and pale sun that gave the day a cold look despite the two of the being inside in the warm and dry.

"The most you can do right now is pretend." Shizune said slowly, "You have to keep going and pretend that everything's fine that you haven't just lost someone important to you. Take Tsunade," Sakura began to listen more carefully at the sound of her teachers name, "She lost everyone who meant anything to her at some point for one reason or another and just because she doesn't look it doesn't mean that she still doesn't feel it every day. Whatever you're feeling now, with Naruto gone, probably won't go away no matter what anyone says to you, but you'll get used to it, you'll learn to live with it."

Sakura watched as Shizune's face twisted into a bitter smile, it was a strange look on the usually cheerful woman's face and she briefly wondered what it was Sakura had been missing about her two mentors over the years. "What Danzo's lot always underestimate is people's ability to endure."

Sakura nodded thoughtfully.

"I know it's selfish," She said quietly, "you hear so many stories and rumours but I just never thought it would happen to me."

"I know," Shizune said reaching out to squeeze Sakura's hand briefly. "But you're strong and you _will_ survive this."

* * *

><p>Naruto stared. He couldn't believe it. The two men that he could barely landed a hit on were now lying on the floor unconscious. Sure Kiba looked very battered and was bleeding in several places, although the cut above his eye meant that he had to keep wiping blood out of his face. Then there was Shikamaru, who had stayed back more and managed to out manoeuvre Dozu as Kiba had ran straight at his partner. The point was that, even if they had seemed overwhelmed for a moment, Kiba and Shikamaru had done what had been impossible for Naruto and stopped them.<p>

"Well if it isn't the little brat from Konoha." Kiba said making Naruto bristle as Shikamaru helped the older man to his feet.

"Hey" Naruto protested and Kiba raised his eyebrows at him. Or rather, it looked like he went to do that, but then thought better of it as he winced. "Serves you right," Naruto said loudly, straightening to look Kiba firmly in the eye, and then he found himself wincing as well after he had taken several kicks to the stomach. Shikamaru sighed at the two of them, both trying to subtly out do the other and no show that they were in any pain at all.

"You're both idiots" he said flatly and then, after checking the man was aright he approached Naruto. "What are you doing here so far from home?" Shikamaru asked.

"I felt like I needed to do something," Naruto said weakly.

"If that something was getting beaten up then, congratulations you've succeeded" Kiba said dryly.

"It wasn't that" Naruto protested loudly, "It was more-" He paused and scrubbed his face with his hands, partly out of agitation and partly because he could feel the grime on it from being forced to the floor and into the walls several times, "after everything I couldn't do nothing, and I just wanted, I don't know, to have at least tried or something."

"So you decided to try and take on two of Orochimaru's foot soldiers on you r own?" Shikamaru asked.

"Who?" Naruto said blankly. They both stared at him dumbfounded.

"You fought those two off without any idea what you were meant to be going up against?" Kiba asked incredulously.

"They were hassling that man" Naruto said and gestured over to where the stranger had been, it looked like he had now vanished. Naruto swallowed "I couldn't leave him with that." He protested.

"For future reference Orochimaru's people all have the same musical symbol on their clothes somewhere," Shikamaru said, "and they're not people to take on lightly."

"You did," Naruto muttered and at the same time Kiba chipped in with;

"No one in any of ANBUs divisions are to be taken lightly."

"Fine," Shikamaru said, "It was stupid to attempt that by yourself, especially as you had no idea what you were really up against. So for future reference, Orochimaru is a former member of Akatsuki but he now heads up his own department."

"A department full of freaks," Kiba murmured, Shikamaru just continued as if he hadn't heard him.

"It's rumoured he's conducting live human experiments there to try and enhance different aspects of people's bodies, some have been successful, we've seen some that are faster than, some of them don't even seem to recognise pain and keep fighting until they physically can't move."

"He's sick." Kiba spat. "He takes people away from their families and turns them into psychotic killing machines and what's worse is that they all seem to worship him as some sort of God. We were lucky to sneak up on these guys and who knows they were probably the failures of the batch but mostly if we see these people we have to run. It's galling."

"It's survival." Shikamaru said firmly. "Asuma was forced to take a stand and then look what happened."

"Orochimaru had that man killed?" Naruto asked, suddenly remembering all the blood on the crisp white snow.

"No, That was Akatsuki," Shikamaru said and seeing Naruto's puzzled look he continued, "They seem to be some of the best of ANBU, with some sort of specialised mission."

"What do you mean mission?" Naruto asked and Kiba snorted.

"They're up to something more than the tired old goal of crushing any spark of hope or resistance out of people." He said and then snorted "Their motto is something about keeping the safety and peace in Fire Country, what a joke."

"But what do they do then?"

"If we knew we would have tried to do something about it by now." Kiba said snarkily.

"Right now we're just looking for any information on them while ANBU are looking for any information on us." Shikamaru added.

"So this is it?" Naruto asked, "You guys are the real deal, the actual Resistance, and instead of some grand plan of scheme, you lot are just as stuck as the rest of us." Naruto said, accusation creeping into his voice.

"At least we're trying." Kiba said flatly which caused Naruto to fall silent for a moment, but only for a moment.

"You can't use my own words against me!" Naruto protested, "I tried and look where it got me, this is insane, there's no way those people are even _human._"

"But whether Orochimaru has warped them beyond normal human feeling, they used to be like us, they've loved people, lost them and been taken away from everyone they've ever cared about. Maybe when it comes down to it all, not being able to feel is a blessing, because who knows what Orochimaru does to them. We've never even gotten close to finding out any of his hideouts." Shikamaru said and Naruto felt slightly chilled by the statement. So, it seemed, did Kiba, as he looked around them to see if there was any hint of life about them.

"Come on," He said. We're far too out in the open here. Let's go somewhere else if you want to chat more." He added sarcastically.

Naruto looked at the walls surrounding them, they were in the most enclosed space he could think of beyond a basement but considering Kiba and Shikamaru had managed to sneak up on those two ANBU he thought it was better to trust their judgement rather than their own.

For now anyway, he still wished that he had some proof that they were the actual resistance and that this wasn't some elaborate set up. But then again that would be ridiculous, it wasn't like they would carry proof of ID or membership cards and if it was a trap, surely they had better things to do than go out of their way to attack each other to lure unsuspecting country boys into difficult situations in ANBU. At least Naruto hoped so anyway.

He followed them all the same, like everything else he had done, it was better than nothing.

* * *

><p>It was when the people of Konoha stopped looking for trouble that, in a way, trouble walked right back into their village. After the appearance of Asuma's body the villagers were on high alert for weeks, and then Naruto had vanished, and whether people had liked the young man or not he had been hard to ignore. The gap he had left in village life was large and easily noticeable so it wasn't just Sakura and his few other friends that felt disturbed by his disappearance.<p>

Then more weeks had past and nothing had happened, so people began to relax, bit by bit, lingering in the streets more, exchanging a few words amongst themselves until things were more or less the way they had been before. The image of cheerful village life was restored even if things were a bit strange under the surface.

However it was then that ANBU walked right back into their village.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this." Sasuke said.

"Why not, this is our own mess, well, actually it's just yours, and we need to find a way to clear this up and make sure that at least nobody will talk about this mysterious disappearing body. Especially when people know it was us that were supposed to clear this up." Gaara muttered.

"I know," Sasuke said shortly, "It's just, this feels not right somehow." Gaara gave him a sharp look.

"If you say so, I wouldn't know." Sasuke scoffed.

"Yeah right, I think we both know you're beyond this whole emotionless thing now."

"If you say so," Gaara repeated, "Even if I feel something it doesn't mean I know what it is." Sasuke gave him a thoughtful look.

"Alright," He said, "Let's see what we can find here. What have we got to lose?"

"Everything." Gaara said instantly and Sasuke actually looked vaguely amused.

"It was more of a rhetorical question." He said casting a look around the shut up shops and the faint glow of candles from the windows. He ducked back in the dense shadows cast by the houses and Gaara followed him as a girl, young woman even, with bright hair hurried past them with an armful of scrolls. Sasuke felt a smile creep up on him, it looked like she had been struggling to carry all of them but she was so focused on the load she was carrying she hadn't looked around, she hadn't noticed the darker smudge of black where they had been standing.

"What do we do now?" Sasuke wondered when she was definitely out of earshot, it was more to himself than to Gaara. "It's not like we can go around asking like we did before, it's a small village people will notice us and clam up."

"We can wait," Gaara said, coming up beside Sasuke, "sooner or later someone will say something about a missing necklace, we'll just have to be patient and listen. Besides," he added with a grin. "You know that I can put my eyes to good use when I need to." Sasuke felt a slight chill go up his spine when those words brought up the memory of _that place_. He hasn't even been there long before he had been forcibly pulled out for no reason, but even the few months he had been there every sense in his body had told him that it was all wrong.

Gaara on the other hand, had practically spent his teen years under Orochimaru and that had given him a special skill set so to speak. They never talked about their respective experiences there, it was another one of the many unspoken subjects between them and Sasuke had only known Gaara had been there because it was in his ANBU profile, and he assumed it was the same for Gaara knowing about him.

It was true though, the idea that anyone could be watching that had forced all hopes of resistance out of most people, and it was something that was very true when it came to Gaara. It was almost uncanny, a sixth sense, that meant with a lot of concentration he could 'see' somewhere else if he heeded to. Something Sasuke couldn't deny was useful when they had been hiding out against several enemies, Gaara had been able to gauge how many and where they were positioned without moving from behind the crevice they had sheltered in.

Someone would say something eventually. It was true, Sasuke thought, but then once they found out who the necklace belonged to and subsequently who had seen the body, what would they do them. For the first time it seemed that Sasuke didn't have a direct plan, things had been a blurred for ages, the lines between their duty and their moral compass so to speak was becoming increasingly shaky but now they were facing the prospect of turning someone over for execution or life imprisonment and servitude for being kind enough to have written a temporary grave marker in the snow.

It was only really then that Sasuke realised just how messed up things had gotten, it was hard to ignore how stupid, how futile things had gotten now. He wondered if Gaara had ever thought that too.


	11. Chapter 11

Something was out of place in Konoha. Sakura could tell someone that much although she couldn't place what was wrong with it, at least not at first. She had been kept so busy recently, Tsunade seemed to think that by working Sakura practically to the bone then she'd have less time to brood and miss Naruto. Unfortunately this approach also seemed to be working mist of the time as by the time she had a moments rest Sakura was so exhausted she went straight to sleep.

But she still had time to think about him, Naruto was such a large part of her life, always dropping round to spend time with her at her parent's house staying for dinner and then until late in the evening or even following Sakura from her house to Tsunade's in order to catch her for a quick chat. Naruto had been there for her so much that getting her to tend to more patients and giving her more assignments did little to stop Sakura from dwelling on Naruto's disappearance.

Despite being so preoccupied Sakura could still tell that there was something off. Somewhere between the early hours of the morning when she was racing to Tsunade's, or when she was out and about visiting and patients with Shizune or Tsunade, and when she was hurrying home in the dark, Sakura could feel that something wasn't quite right in her home. It frustrated her that she could never place what was so strange.

It wasn't that Naruto was gone, as Shizune had promised she had gotten used to missing him. There was something else happening and Sakura didn't like it. It felt like there was something moving just out of the corner of her eye and when she turned to look at it, it had gone.

This only added to Sakura's growing unease, she felt constantly on edge and everyone in Konoha noticed that Sakura was smiling and talking less. Some of them even found it a little suspicious especially as everyone else seemed to have moved on, at least that's how it looked like to the two new visitors in the village.

Then someone saw somebody else talking to a stranger, a person too well dressed to be a traveller or any kind of salesman, who usually passed through looking even more shabbily dressed than some of the villagers themselves.

After that the mood in the village tangibly changed. It was no longer just Sakura hurrying through the streets, avoiding eye contact once again. The breather they had felt in the quiet weeks after Asuma's body was discovered was shown to be just a small moment of reprieve, the calm before the storm so to speak, and now they were in the middle of a hurricane. And after that the two people didn't bother hiding anymore and then Tsunade never let Sakura leave on her own if she could help it. She was no longer allowed to wander the village looking for herbs and supplies, or to do rounds with patients even with Tsunade or Shizune next to her, she was stuck inside studying and reading as Tsunade had apparently decided (oh, so suddenly) that Sakura needed to go over some of the basics just to be sure and that endless anatomical diagrams of the nervous system and bones were the way to do this.

Instead Sakura watched the man and woman walk brazenly up and down the streets of Konoha whenever they went past one of Tsunade's windows. And she hated that now they didn't feel the need to hide anymore and they paraded up and down her home, taking peoples hard earned food and goods from the small shops and markets Konoha had kept going, and they did it as if they owned the place. Probably because they felt they did, Sakura thought, they had made no attempt to hide the fact that they thought they were better than everyone else here. And she hated them for that, Sakura's always short temper was bubbling away under a deceivingly calm surface.

She blamed them for Naruto's disappearance, she blamed them for the things they forced people to do, decent people who lied and cheated one another to buy another few months or years of survival. She blamed them for what they had done to her village, which had been lurching forward on the road to recovery following the body and Naruto vanishing and now people were too scared to look at each other, or maybe even felt ashamed if they knew that when the pressure was on they would say anything to direct an accusation on someone else to save their own family, even do it to an old friend. There was no real loyalty anymore and that was what Sakura hated them for most of all.

So when Sakura felt someone behind her when she was walking home that night, she knew something was wrong, it wasn't anyone from her village they wouldn't have slowly crept behind her pausing whenever she did at a time like this. And now, after all the wait, a small part of Sakura relished this moment. At last, something was happening, sure it was bound to be something horrible but it was better than the terrible creeping anticipation and dread she had been living with for the past months.

After weeks of feeling the futility of her own existence and struggles against the rest of the world, that anything she could do would be lost amongst the bigger picture, any kindness swallowed up until it was almost nonexistent against the rest of Fire Country's struggles. Sakura found herself welcoming the change. She knew if it was ANBU she couldn't win, but whatever stubborn pride she held onto wouldn't let her back down now.

Sakura walked slowly down the street, refusing to speed up even though her heart was almost pounding through her chest, it felt like she was facing down a wild animal as she refused to show any fear or hesitation. She could hear steady footsteps behind her, matching her step for step and then she saw it, a shadow just ahead of her. She was cornered, just like a pack of animals working together to trap their prey these two had done the same to her.

Sakura clenched her fist to stop it from visibly shaking, she wondered briefly what Naruto would do in this situation, probably shout and then charge at them if he had to get away. That thought gave her a moment to smile to herself, taking a small amount of comfort in her imaginary Naruto's actions but it wasn't really for her. She knew at some point this would have to come to blows and she was, hopefully, prepared for that, but Sakura wanted to know what was behind her first. She wanted to see the two people who would probably take her to her death and she was determined to go protecting the people she loved, she would make them proud of her if she could.

Sakura took a deep breath.

"What do you want?" She asked and was pleased that her voice was steady.

"Oh, little girl," a man's voice crept smoothly up behind her. "Don't worry your pretty little head so, we just want to _talk_."

Sakura felt a chill go up her spine but she did her best to ignore it, there was something in the way the woman was stalking towards her and that the man, who had suddenly gotten so close without her even hearing him move, that reminded her, once again, of something predatory in their actions. They were stronger than her, they had been trained to fight where she hadn't even been in anything like that since she was a child, and if that wasn't bad enough there were two of them against just her. She was significantly outmatched and Sakura knew it.

"So talk." She said firmly and the woman arched her eyebrow at her.

"Mmm, I love it when they're like this." The woman said casually making her way towards Sakura. "So strong, so determined not to give anything away, but guess what sweetheart-"

"Everybody talks." The man said right in her ear. Sakura jerked slightly and whirled round but he was already several feet away from her and they both were laughing.

"They always tell us exactly what we want to hear." The woman laughed and Sakura felt slightly sick to her stomach. Still she thought about what Shizune had told her, about Tsunade, about loss and how people above all had learnt how to endure things now. And that was what she had to remember, she could survive this if she could just steel herself for what was to come, if she could get through whatever these people through at her she could survive this.

At least that's what she kept telling herself. She knew there was a high chance of them getting bored and killing her but she tried to squash those darker thoughts, confine them to the dark part of her mind where they belonged, never to be examined.

And then the pain started.

It began like a school fight, there was a sharp tug to her hair that jerked Sakura backwards, tears in her eyes at the sudden unexpected burst of pain, then before she could recover Sakura received a blow across her face that sent black dots shooting across her vision. She fell to her knees and the woman grabbed a fistful of Sakura's hair and yanked her upwards.

"Now tell me, love, why are you being hidden away so much?"

"What?" Sakura gasped, and she could feel blood sluggishly dripping from her nose. There was another sharp pull. "Come on now, don't be coy, those village women are protecting you, keeping you all locked up in that Ivory Tower, and I want to know why."

"There's no reason." Sakura said and the woman tutted slightly.

"Looks like we're doing this the hard way." She looked sharply up at the man. "Do it." He stepped forward and pulled out a knife.

"Scream all you like, little girl," He said stepping towards her as the woman held her stil by her hair. "No one will come out and save you, they're all too scared, and they should be, when they hear what we're going to do with you."

The knife came down.

Sakura screamed.

Sasuke couldn't help feeling slightly bored. They had been hiding out in Konoha for a while now and ever since they found out that two members of the specialised division ROOT had arrived they had been even more restricted in their movements. He and Gaara just couldn't take the risk of being seen especially since they had so little reason to be here.

He had taken to restlessly walking the village at night, always sticking to the shadows and using his training to render himself practically invisible to all but the most well trained eyes. At least then he felt like he was doing something, searching for anything even though most people were shut up inside after those two idiots had loudly proclaimed their presence.

Sasuke and Gaara had come to an agreement about that, they couldn't see what use striding up and down the village would do to conduct a proper investigation and now all they could hear when Gaara eavesdropped into people's homes were hushed whispers about the newcomers, fear and speculation about what could happen as people wondered if anything they had done could be considered treasonous. They had found out that someone had secretly taken above their quota of food to help their sick child, an act that was technically illegal but neither Sasuke or Gaara cared about that, someone else had 'borrowed' things from their neighbour and were scared of being turned in. But there was nothing worthwhile, just petty crimes and concerns from people doing their hardest to survive no matter the cost.

There was the curious girl though, they had seen her the first night they arrived, rushing home, and since then it seemed as if she had been cloistered away during the day and Sasuke only caught odd glimpses of her late at night or in the early hours of the morning, always hurrying. She was the only one who didn't look scared or too concerned and she was either very brave or very stupid and didn't know what was to come. Even the other two women who seemed to be sheltering her Sasuke had seen exchanging a few worried conversations and they seemed concerned about something, the girl or something else entirely maybe?

Either way, Sasuke thought he was reaching the end of his tether is he was starting to find village gossip interesting. It was then that he heard the scream. And that made things very interesting, it wasn't just a scream of fright, it was the kind of scream he recognised from the prison camps, one of fear and absolute agony. There was no reason for it to be heard in Konoha.

Sasuke cursed and began making his way in the direction it came from. It was interesting how even the slightest open window was firmly closed whether to try and block out trouble, or to avoid acknowledging that someone was in danger outside, if they couldn't see or hear it, it was easier to pretend it never happened, not in their village. Sasuke knew that better than most.

He heard another scream, this one was cut off half way through and Sasuke heard it trail off into a chocking sob and he knew he was getting nearby. He paused in the shadows, rounding the corner carefully so no to draw attention to himself but it seems he needn't have worried the two ROOT operatives were too engrossed in their activities to pay attention to anyone else. They seemed to be relying on fear and self preservation to keep away any witnesses and it seemed to be working well as a deterrent for the villagers. The woman moved slightly and Sasuke caught a glimpse of pink hair, some strands of it in the woman's hands where they had been pulled away from holding her still.

Then Sasuke could see her clearly, the odd little girl who was always carrying armfuls of scrolls and papers, buried under work and chores it seemed, too busy to get into trouble or so he had first thought. There was blood running down her arm and she was holding herself awkwardly as if the sitting position she had been forced into hurt her, that much Sasuke could see and some part deep down inside him felt that this was just wrong.

Usually Sasuke was able to ignore it, the greater good, that's what they had always been told, these things were for a greater good. Once apparently so great that ordinary people like Sasuke couldn't begin to see or understand it only Danzo could so they would do well not to question him. Still it was getting harder and harder to ignore the voice inside his that shouted every so often that something about this whole thing was just plain wrong. The echoes of a moral conscience maybe.

The girl wasn't giving them anything, young woman maybe would be more appropriate Sasuke saw, but since he had arrived she hadn't answered any of their questions, not without contempt and not giving them any information they could use anyway, and she wasn't fighting back which was odd. She didn't struggle and she didn't give them any reason to beat her more which, Sasuke was fascinated to see in a weird way, only served to frustrate them more.

"Why are they protecting you?"

"They're not." The girl said firmly and there was another crack and Sasuke watched as the girls head reeled back from the force. He was mildly impressed, despite it looking like she had been through a lot she was no closer to breaking.

Still, Sasuke hung back slightly despite the dwindling voice of his moral conscious shouting dimly at him to do something, _anything_ to help her, especially as he knew it would only get worse. Sasuke ignored it and stayed resolutely still in the shadows, watching the scene before him undetected. He wanted to know why they were after her, what she had done to affect these two so badly, and, well, it wasn't like if he walked up and asked her that she would tell him the truth anyway. Not when she may well have been lying to these two ROOT operatives with such ease. She was being protected, that much Sasuke could tell, but there was always the possibility that she was unaware of how far these people were going for her herself.

The girl winced again as the man, this time, struck her from behind, sending her sprawling forwards toward his partner and part of Sasuke admired the skill and familiarity in their actions. Even if it only served to remind him just how many times they had probably done this. Whenever he was faced with something like this he usually found it easier to leave it to Gaara but even his partner who had a growing reputation as a sadistic killer preferred to give people a quicker death than these two would give the girl.

And it was that thought that made Sasuke slightly uncomfortable as deep in his subconscious something kept tugging at him. He would regret this, if he just stood and watched it happen, it seemed to say.

"I'm impressed _little girl_ that you're still not talking to us." The woman said, "Still, neither of us take kindly to rudeness and we're starting to feel ignored so _talk!_" She kicked at the young woman and was surprised to see that she had been stopped. Sasuke was as well. The girl had her hand out and was grasping her shin. It looked like this could only get more interesting, he thought, she had decided to fight back.

"My name is Sakura," She said, glaring at the woman in front of her. "And if this is all that ANBU are capable of them I'm not scared of you." She yanked at the foot she was holding onto causing the woman to wobble slightly. "And I don't need protecting." She added loudly, getting to her feet as if she hadn't been beaten at all and launched herself at the other woman. Punching her full in the face. There was a crack as the woman's head was flung backwards under the force behind it.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. Now he was really impressed that the girl, that _Sakura_, with such a delicate sounding name, advanced on her opponent and punched her again. It wasn't what he would have called a soft 'girly' hit, she put her entire force behind it and whatever it was she did with her time in between running backwards and forward with those scrolls, it had made her strong. She managed to hot the woman a few more times but she had forgotten about the man behind her who easily seized Sakura from behind her dragged her away from his partner. She thrashed for a moment until he hit her, stunning Sakura momentarily and using that moment to pin her to the floor.

"That little bitch." The woman said and Sasuke felt strangely pleased to see that Sakura had drawn blood as the women held her hand up to her nose.

"What do you want to do with her?" The man asked and Sakura started struggling again.

"Let's kill her, whatever she knows can't be that important anyway and what can she really do. If she's being protected by those women, well, then whatever her importance we can deal with it just by removing her from the equation." She said.

Sakura twisted in vain trying to get away from her new captor she bit down hard on part of his arm to try and force him to let go of her but he held on stubbornly.

"Looks like someone doesn't know when to give up." The man said and gave her another blow to the head. Sakura felt dazed and she fought to remain conscious, fought to keep on fighting them and she dimly wondered just how hard he had hit her as she thought she could see a shape forming in the shadows by the parade of shops she was in. She shaped solidified as she starred, still uncomprehending, part of her ached at the thought of it being someone to help her but she knew that would never happen. No one in Konoha could stand up to these people even if they tried to. Yet she just couldn't help wishing...

"Let her go." What? Sakura was confused at the voice, it was calm and controlled and she didn't recognise it.

"How sweet Princess," The woman sneered at her, "It looks like people are dashing to your rescue, still feel like telling us you're not being protected when so many of these pathetic villagers are going out of their way to protect you, those two women and now him."

But he wasn't from Konoha Sakura thought foggily, she was too stunned, her body was aching too much for her to be able to figure out what was going on now and part of her thought she was still dreaming or hallucinating this because as the woman raised her hand to strike Sakura again the stranger vanished. Then before she could bring her palm down a hand reached out and yanked the ROOT woman's arm back, pinning her in place.

"I said," the man hissed and this time the threat in his voice was clearly heard, "Let her go." Sakura shivered. But the two with her seemed to shake off the feeling of dread Sakura had with bravado.

"Like you could do anything to us." The man said, bravely Sakura found herself thinking or was it foolishly?

Her – savour was it?- smirked wickedly and again only Sakura seemed to notice that he was practically radiating danger.

"Is that what you think?" He asked dryly and with one fluid movement he slammed the women into a wall and seized one of the man's arms. There was a sort of crack and Sakura realised with some sort of horror that he had probably broken the other mans arm. This was confirmed when he howled with pain and his tight grip on Sakura herself loosened. Sakura hastily struggled to get away from him, bending his fingers back as he momentarily lost his grasp on her and then as the ANBU man seemed to attempt to regain his grip on her he was wrenched away.

Sakura took a few moment to gasp up some air before she realised, getting shakily to her feet, that she was now positioned between the two that had tortured her and the man who had been strong enough to attack them both and attacked them so viciously. For the moment he seemed to be protecting her but without the presence of two other enemies Sakura wasn't sure what was in store for her, what he wanted, and who he was as it was obvious that he was no ordinary civilian like her.

Sasuke was struggling to maintain his focus as the girl behind his got cautiously to her feet, ignoring the pain she must have been in to get better mobility in case she had to run. He had to commend her bravery as the girl, _Sakura_, he reminded himself, was still trying to fight as best as she could against an impossible enemy. She seemed smart and from the corner of his eye Sasuke could see her weighing him up as both a potential ally and opponent. Despite this there was still a certain innocence surrounding her, she hadn't seen or experienced half the things he had in this sheltered village that had been largely left alone since the Resistance had been chased here all those weeks ago. But her wide eyes, scared but refusing to show it, that had tugged at Sasuke until he felt compelled to intervene were now narrowed in thought as he turned to give his full attention to the ROOT agents ahead of him.

The woman had straightened herself up again and she seemed to be the more intelligent of the two as she now watched him carefully. The man however was cradling his, now useless arm, with barely concealed rage.

"You little _bastard" _He exploded and made a few hasty steps forward to where Sasuke was standing before his partner got in from of him.

"Don't." She said sharply and then it was her that took a few more steps to stand up in front of Sasuke. "Who the hell are you?" She demanded. Sasuke said nothing, he just tilted his head as he looked at the woman thoughtfully, he didn't know much about ROOT but there were always rumours flying around about them. They were specially trained by Danzo himself to act as his right arm in maintaining order in Konoha, they were practically superhuman, impossible to beat. He smiled grimly, well he had just made both ROOT members bleed so it looked unlikely that any of these rumours were true. And he didn't like what they had done to the girl, to _Sakura_, it stirred memories deep inside him that he had long since tried to forget, feelings of home and family that he could just recall but never wanted to.

Sasuke pushed all of this behind and focused entirely on the two before him, they were skilled, that was definitely true but it seemed that they had grown too cocky in their abilities and that, Sasuke thought with a smirk, would work against them quite nicely.

He moved forward quickly and Sakura was surprised to see him almost disappear in front of the woman to be suddenly in the space between where she and her partner were standing. There was a momentary look of horror on her face when she realised just who, or maybe what, she was facing when there was suddenly a lot of blood.

Sakura felt slightly sick, the man had struck down the male ANBU so easily, she wrenched her gaze away and glanced around for anything to use as a weapon while everyone's attention was directed away from her and found- nothing. No, not nothing, there was an old piece of metal partially rusted, from a support maybe, that was partially hidden behind the locked bins of waste material that shopkeepers sorted though and sold and traded later if there was any use for them. Sakura thought that it looked heavy and while parts of it had rusted away, rendering it unusable from a tradesperson's point of view, it had created a jagged edge that would do Sakura quite nicely. She only had to get it.

Sasuke looked dispassionately at the man in front of him. He was bleeding a lot now sure, but none of them had hit any major wounds, the idea to hurt and maim more that inflict fatal injuries was one Sasuke rarely used but in this case it felt justified, that they were going to be hurt in the same way they had hurt hundreds of other people, Sasuke just felt that it was _right_.

The man whimpered, apparently as unused to receiving physical pain as he was to dishing it out and Sasuke moved round to wrench him up by the hair. Much like they had done to Sakura.

Suddenly remembering the girl, Sasuke glanced up to see her dart sideways and retrieve a heavy metal pole. Smart girl, he thought approvingly, overriding the nagging feeling that she shouldn't have to be doing this, that someone else should be protecting her. Someone rude and rash and _annoying._ Sasuke shook that thought away. _Focus_. He eyes the woman in front of him as he firmly placed the small blade he had been using against her partner throat.

"Now I want you to talk." He said coldly. "What do you want with the girl?"


	12. Chapter 12

Sakura stared at the sudden change in events, she gripped the metal bar tighter, ignoring that every part of her body was screaming in pain. Her heart beat furiously as the man who had suddenly appeared and to all intents and purposes saved her but he had done so by completely and utterly overwhelming her attackers. And she still had no idea whether he was going to turn round and target her next and Sakura knew that she would stand no chance against him, and she had no idea which side he was supposed to be on. But she still found herself edging closer, curious, after he asked the woman why they had targeted her of all people.

"She knows something, something important and we need to find that out" The woman said, "Surely you of all people can understand that, you look like you've been properly trained, you're here for a reason too am I right, we can work together and she can tell us what we need to know." She continued and Sasuke was mildly impressed that at least one of them had a brain. She had known enough of the way he fought to see that he was probably in ANBU or a similar organisation himself and if the circumstances were any different Sasuke would have considered backtracking and putting an end to this whole sorry affair. As it was he was still going to put an end to it, but it was going to end less than diplomatically.

He let his eyes flick back to the girl, to Sakura, who was standing straight, armed with the old rusted metal support from a nearby shop. He could see, even from this distance, that she was shaking.

"Don't you think if she knew anything she would have told you by now." Sasuke said evenly keeping the sharp edge of his knife pressed firmly against the other man's throat. He pulled at his hair viciously again keeping his head twisted backwards at an awkward angle. "I mean, look how easy it was for me to get you two to tell me part of your plan at least."

For a moment he saw a flash of anger on the woman's face before it was replaced by an expressionless mask, Sasuke recognised all too well, still, she was protective of her partner and that was all he needed to know.

"What do you think a little village girl could tell you anyway?" Sasuke continued easily and he was amused to see Sakura almost bristle at that, like an angry cat.

"We know the Resistance passed through here." The woman said triumphantly, "even after the Akatsuki killed that other one. We watched him struggle away and followed the trail of blood and we would have finished him off but it looked like the cold would do that well enough. He looked so hopeful to have made it here it was almost funny as he couldn't be saved, but he might have passed on some information before he died if someone came out and saw him."

"How very remiss of you not to check that" Sasuke said calmly as his mind worked furiously.

Sasuke would admit that he was surprised that they knew that the Resistance had come here again. It made him wonder how long they had been watching this village, maybe for weeks waiting for them to all let their guard down and carry on as normal before stirring up all the bad memories again and targeting someone. They seemed to enjoy watching people suffered but most of all Sasuke wondered if they had seen him and Gaara clean up the body. He hadn't been recognised, not yet anyway, but it had more or less decided for him that he couldn't let them walk away. It would be too risky to consider it now.

To buy himself some time Sasuke glanced towards Sakura who was still standing some distance away holding the metal bar. She shifted uneasily when he turned his full attention to her for the first time and noticeably tightened her grip on the bar she had. The woman looked at her as well and sneered.

"So how about it?" She said turning her attention back to Sasuke she took a few steps towards him, ignoring that he tightened his grip on her partner. "A little sharing of information. You must be here for a similar reason to us. How about a little _co-operation?_" She deliberately lowered her voice at that last bit and Sasuke, who didn't think anything else could shock him, found himself proved wrong. What? Was she actually propositioning him? He must have misinterpreted her, but no, she was smiling at him, he had titled slightly to one side. This was certainly...new.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and shifted his position so he could put pressure on the man's back with his foot.

"How about you tell me everything you know or I break your partner's spine." He said stonily and the woman hurriedly held out her hand.

"No wait, wait! There's no need for that really. I can tell you." She said and Sasuke momentarily wondered why she was so desperate to keep her partner safe. No that it mattered to him beyond that her protectiveness being useful to his own purposes.

"Don't." The man wheezed but when Sasuke started to push on his spine with his foot the woman jumped in again.

"We think they're recruiting." She said hastily and watched Sasuke carefully, only relaxing a bit to continue more steadily when Sasuke let her partner slump in his arms without twisting his body at an odd angle.

"And?" Sasuke said looking meaningfully down at the man he was holding, making it clear what was going to happen if she didn't start talking again.

"Well, the first one, the dead man, was up here investigating something but he passed through a lot of places and may well have suggested joining the Resistance before the second lot of people came after him. And then someone disappeared from here too we wanted to follow him to see what they had given him as a rendezvous point but we watched them all and he spent the most time with her so she must know something about them."

"This is all just inspired guesswork." Sasuke said, "although I suppose I should commend both of you for your vivid imaginations. You have no proof." Out of the corner of his eye Sasuke had seen Sakura look relieved to hear that whoever it was who had left the village had probably gone to meet the Resistance and he mentally cursed her for her response. The other woman had undoubtedly seen it too and chalked it up to further guilt.

"She can give it to us. If you let us we can get her to tell us everything." Yes, because they had been doing so well at that before. "You saw her face she knows _something._ And you know we can get it out of her eventually."

"Sorry." Sasuke said and he swiftly broke the man's neck. The woman went white.

"You bastard!" She shouted as Sasuke threw that body aside. She was wasting precious time to try and get an advantage over Sasuke with her emotions raging and in no time at all Sasuke was in behind her, twisting her arms behind her back.

"Seems like you've lost your will to fight." He said as he looked down on her.

"You bastard," She repeated. "He was my brother." So that was it, a brother-sister killing team, it certainly took family bonding to a new level and Sasuke shouldn't be surprised at how much the regime was able to twist family bonds. He knew that from his own brother. "Why did you even do that?" She cried and Sasuke watched dispassionately, finding it strange that she had taken such relish in beating Sakura only to cry so much at her brother's painless death.

"You know why." Sasuke said softly leaning down to her level. "You said it yourself, under torture everybody talks. And I can't have you letting anyone know I was here." And then it was all too easy for him to do the same to her.

Sakura was horrified when her sort of rescuer stepped away from the second body. He seemed to have his own agenda and she had no idea where she fit into that and as he turned his attention to her again she raised the metal bar.

"Stay away from me." Sakura said clearly and the man shook his head slightly.

"I'm surprised you can still stand after that." He said evenly, "any attempt to hurt me with that will probably only end up hurting you more than me."

"I can still try." She said defiantly and he tilted his head to one side.

"I'm sure you could." Sakura almost lowered the bar out of confusion. He almost seemed amused by her. "And let me guess, you have no idea what those two were talking about except, of course, that last part about the missing person."

"Yes, I mean no." Sakura said and he raised his eyebrows at her. "I know someone who left but I thought he'd been taken. That's it and no matter what you do to me I won't change what I've said. There's nothing more to it than that."

He took a step towards her and Sakura flinched automatically and he raised his hands in a peaceful gesture.

"Don't be ridiculous girl if I wanted to harm you you'd be dead by now." He snapped and Sakura hefted the bar higher ready to take a swing at him if she needed to, and Sasuke could see her stubborn determination return.

"My name's Sakura." She said clearly and he raised an eyebrow.

"So I heard."

"Then use it." She said firmly, glaring at him. He took another step towards her, and Sakura could see under the dim lighting around them from the clear night's sky that he had blood on him, probably from when he had beaten the man first, and noticing that she felt faintly sick.

"Okay then _Sakura_," he said and Sakura couldn't help shivering at the way he said her name, it made her vaguely uncomfortable and she wasn't sure why. "What I really want to know is why those two thought you might know something, and why they thought you were being protected in the first place."

"I don't know." He shook his head slightly.

"Surely you can guess."

"That's-"

"Come on, you don't seem stupid to me," He cast his eyes over her injuries, "Not completely stupid anyway but I think I can put that down to misplaced bravery or just ignorance rather than you being a complete idiot."

"I am not ignorant." Sakura snapped and the man chuckled slightly, it was a strange noise, almost as if he wasn't used to doing it.

"You live in a small village in the middle of nowhere in a country that trades in secrets and continuously lies to the people that live in it, of course you're ignorant."

"And you are surprisingly well informed for some helpful stranger passing through." The man said nothing, in fact he seemed to be ignoring her and Sakura couldn't help feeling slightly offended that he had suddenly appeared and, she could admit, saved her and for what? She wondered what his agenda was as it was too much to hope for him to not have one at all but if he was plying her for information Sakura couldn't figure out how he was hoping to achieve that, or if she had already unwittingly given him what he wanted.

And then suddenly, he was gone. No, Sakura realised, not gone, he was behind her she could feel him behind her before she even stumbled backwards, hastily turning round to check that suspicion with her own two eyes. He caught her wrist and held her close to him before she had time to back away too far.

"I think it goes without saying that this never happened" He said and his tight grip on Sakura's wrist made her want to squirm away from him but she refused to look as scared as she felt. At least she tried not to let him know how much he intimidated her. "I'm sure you've done that before as here, anything out of the ordinary never happens, remember?"

Sakura went cold, he seemed to know about the body, but how? And how had he gotten the better of those ANBU agents was he one of them or not? Sakura had no idea where to place him, what he was going and why and she realised that she probably was as ignorant as he had said.

Sakura had no idea what was going on, who he was meant to be. It didn't seem as if he was part of the Resistance, somehow she didn't think they had been trained to kill, to be so ruthless. At least Sakura hoped not. She momentarily wondered if they were pinning any hopes of liberation on another set of killers but then dismissed that thought as too horrible to contemplate. But what was he if he wasn't quite ANBU, and wasn't quite the Resistance. In the middle of her home, the place she had known her entire life, Sakura felt quite lost as everything she thought she knew was ripped away from her.

Suddenly he pulled her even closer until his mouth was right next to her ear.

"I was never here." He said harshly and the pressure on her wrist released. She blinked and it seemed as if in the time he had vanished.

"Sakura?" She dimly heard a voice calling for her and whirled round. The two bodies were gone too. No not gone. Certainly they had moved but if she really squinted she could see some shapes in the shadows. Still they had moved far too quickly for her to keep up with.

"Sakura, there you are." It was Shizune hurrying up to her, "we heard some –noises" She stumbled over the word "and were worried. Oh, what happened to you? We never should have let you leave." She exclaimed when she took in Sakura's appearance. Sakura wondered about protesting, that it wasn't as if they had known what would happen on her walk home, that she would have been targeted. But then she began to think about what that man had said that she must have had some idea why she was targeted, why she was being protected. And about the missing boy.

Was this all because of Naruto, what had he done? Had he actually joined the Resistance? And why had that other man stepped in. He was strong and fast enough to have destroyed the two man ANBU cell but what was he? The woman had talked to as if he was one of them but if that was the case why would he have killed his allies, why would he have protected her? Sakura knew she would be puzzling over that for a while.

Her mind spun, and what about that body, the one that started this chain of events it seemed. That had been mentioned too. He was definitely part of the Resistance but why was he here. Why was everything suddenly centred around Konoha.

"Sakura?" It was Shizune again, but she seemed to be further away this time. Sakura tried to respond and found that she couldn't. Instead without really registering anything she pitched forward and passed out.

* * *

><p>Sasuke watched as the woman who had actually hurried out towards an ANBU attack caught Sakura in mid fall. He was surprised the girl had stayed standing for so long. That she had been so coherent when he was talking to her but he supposed that it was the rush of adrenalin and fear that kept her going and now everything had caught up to her.<p>

A movement caught his eye and he looked across at Gaara, who was looking down at the two bodies with something resembling curiosity.

"I saw what you did." The other man said, "all of it."

"I know," Sasuke said, he had noticed Gaara standing a little way away from the start, before he had intervened. "You didn't stop me, or help."

"You didn't need help." Gaara said flatly, "And in my opinion you could have finished those two off a little quicker." Sasuke gave him a sharp look.

"And why didn't you stop me?"

"What does it matter to me? I didn't know those people."

"They're meant to be our comrades."

"That didn't stop _you_." Gaara said. "What I want to know is why you would want to throw everything away for that girl. She was brave, I'll give you that. But when these two don't return they'll send out another team, a tougher one, and she'll be found again. You've only delayed what's inevitable."

"And what is that?" Sasuke asked.

"They'll kill her, whether she knows anything or not she's as good as dead."

"At least I didn't stand and watch it happen." Sasuke said flatly. Gaara almost chuckled.

"What is it with you and this place? Years of missions and as soon as you step foot into this tiny little village everything goes out of the window for you." Gaara said, "Everything you've done here could have you branded as a traitor." Sasuke had no response to that, he knew Gaara was right. Instead they watched as an older blonde woman joined the other in supporting Sakura. He had seen those two about and he wondered if the two ROOT agents were right in saying that they were protecting Sakura but from what? Were they just generally trying to keep her safe from the horrible realities of the regime or was there something deeper going on like the two ROOT agents were suggesting. Or were they just fishing and there was nothing hidden going on, just accusations for accusations sake.

"What do you thinks going on here?" Sasuke asked, "Despite all appearances I'm not so sure this is an ordinary village. Not after all this."

"Who knows." Gaara said simply, "Most of this seems to be ordinary people with ordinary lives but there is something else going on here. If that man from the Resistance dragged himself all the way here there must have been some reason for it. You wouldn't travel that far, that wounded, unless you had to and he must have known that dying in town would mean that an investigation would soon follow. The Resistance can't be that stupid not to know that anyway."

"I wonder if that girl is being protected." Sasuke said after a moment's pause.

"By you at least anyway." Gaara said dryly and Sasuke sent him a sharp look. "Well if she is then what for? There's nothing special about her as far as I can see. We've been here for a while and she's not tried to contact anyone she spends her time healing the sick and learning how to help people even more. She's a regular little do-gooder but I can't see why anyone would be too interested. Unless you could answer that one, why was it so important you save her, what made her so different from everyone else that we left behind that you knew would die."

"She was braver than the others." Sasuke said quietly it was the best thing he could say to his partner, what had really happened was that somehow she had brought something up that had been buried inside of him a long time. He had seen her face and it had reminded him of someone else's who had looked up at him and someone else with wide eyes and tried to follow them everywhere. It was like she had reminded him, by refusing to give in to the two ROOT operatives, that things could be, and used to be, different. Gaara frowned at him.

"Sentimentality will get you killed." He said. "It would be better if it never happens again."

"I wasn't being sentimental." Sasuke said, "I need to get rid of these." He added gesturing to the dead ROOT members. Gaara shrugged slightly.

"I can give you a hand. There's nothing else to do of interest here anyway." He said and began going through their belonging to remove any trace of identity they had. In theory once in ANBU you weren't supposed to carry anything that marked you out as an individual. They were meant to be nameless, faceless agents that served Danzo's will but this rule went widely disregarded as everyone had something that marked them out, even Gaara.

Between them they emptied both bodies' pockets and bundled them up to dispose of later. Gaara gave Sasuke a few sideward glances he couldn't help feeling a little curious about his partner's behaviour and he wondered if it was going to bring them anymore problems.

Not that Gaara was particularly bothered about the two dead ANBU agents, he had no sense of solidarity with them, they had never met and even if they had he wouldn't have been disturbed by this either. If those two had been stupid enough to cross swords with Sasuke, so to speak, then they deserved everything they got, Gaara thought, if they were that determined to survive they should have done better.

"What do you want to do with them." He asked finally. "This is all farmland so it's too risky to bury them and I am not helping you carry them far. It's your own mess."

"I'll burn them." Sasuke replied without hesitation. "It gets very dark here so if I take then out towards the woods over there I can get it hot enough to burn without anyone seeing smoke. And besides if anyone sees or smells it no one will say anything."

"Alright." Gaara muttered and he bent down to pick up one of the bodies. "Let's get this over with them." Sasuke almost smiled, he thought Gaara had said he wouldn't help. But he wasn't going to point that out now, it would be easier and quicker with the two of them anyway. He shouldered the body of the man, trust Gaara to leave him with the heavier one, and made to follow where Gaara had disappeared to. Then he paused slightly looking back to where the two women had taken Sakura off too. The girl, Sakura, had definitely been familiar to him, he could vaguely remember _something_ but as Gaara had said there was no point dwelling on these things.

He had killed two ANBU agents, people who were meant to be his comrades and they had believed that they were on to something, maybe they had been about to uncover something about the Resistance after all who was he to say. He and Gaara were just here chasing the trail of a necklace that only proved that someone had come across Asuma's body and they didn't even know if that person had found him alive, and received whatever message he had, or dead. Either way, Gaara had been right, his actions had been treasonous and shouldn't happen again.


	13. Chapter 13

Sasuke had never been more grateful for Gaara's silence. Although it was true that his partner had kept quiet over a number of other matters. There had been the brief conversations and comments that said to anyone else would have had Sasuke reassigned on a mission that was simply an effective way to sign his death warrant and claim that it was such a shame that a promising young ANBU agent died on such a mission to anyone that may think to ask. Not that it would have made much of a difference to Sasuke as he doubted if Itachi would have care much for him beyond the shame Sasuke's treason would have brought.

But now, as he walked away from the piles of ash that was all that remained of the ROOT operatives, Sasuke had always been good with fire and knew enough to be able to get it hot enough to burn through a human. Now, walking out of the woods to see Gaara waiting for him, Sasuke was suddenly glad that it was Gaara of all people that he had been assigned to, a man who was either callous enough to disregard those two as comrades or was happy enough with Sasuke as a partner to not turn him in. Sasuke wasn't too sure which one it was, part of him like to think that after everything, especially after the meeting with Kurenai, it was the latter.

Sasuke knew that the day in Kurenai's house that things were changing. When both their emotions had been running high enough to shout out things they both would regret later. At least Sasuke did moment after he had said it he wished he could take it back.

It wasn't just because it was the wrong thing to say as ANBU Sasuke wasn't bothered about that. But it was because he didn't want Gaara to see how scared he was sometimes, that he hated to kill people, because sometimes all he could see was his family in their places. He had spent months proving himself as a decent partner and now Gaara knew almost everything and could turn him in at any time. And now Sasuke was depending on Gaara's silence to keep him alive and he hated feeling powerless, unsure whether he could completely trust Gaara or not when part of him wished he could after everything that had happened between the two of them.

"Is it all done?" Gaara asked calmly and Sasuke nodded. "Good, we should leave this place." He continued brusquely.

"If you want to" Sasuke said blankly and Gaara game him a strange look.

"Whether we want to or not, we need to move. Once someone realises that those two ROOT agents are missing then they'll send another team to come looking for them. We're won't get anywhere with that necklace anymore especially after people heard that girl screaming last night-"

"Sakura" Sasuke said mildly.

"What?"

"She said her name was Sakura."

"Fine," Gaara said with an overly exaggerated air of patience. "We won't get any information, they'll close ranks and just refuse to talk to us. We won't find out anymore about that necklace or Asuma so we need to find something new to say we've been doing these past few months and whatever we say we can't admit to being anywhere near here."

"I know," Sasuke said defiantly, he didn't like that Gaara felt the need to spell all this out to him as if he was a child, or new to ANBU all together.

"Either way we need a new plan, a decent one this time with no room for whatever it was that came over you here." Sasuke bristled slightly but Gaara ignored it. "For now maybe we should just keep our heads down and pretend to work." Sasuke arched one eyebrow.

"Did you just say pretend?"

"What? Do you want to start hunting down Resistance members with me again because I didn't think you'd be open to that right now, it doesn't matter to me either way what we do."

"We can't pretend forever" Sasuke said, "sooner or later they'll realise that we're not performing to our usual standard and we'll be questioned about it." They both paused slightly. They knew it wouldn't just be questions they'd both face a full scale interrogation and might not make it out of there the same way they went in. And that was if they came out at all. "I won't ruin this for you, you used to do well before me-"

"We're still doing well" Gaara interrupted.

"No we're not." Sasuke said "I just killed our allies, I've lied to you for so long and we sat down for dinner with a Resistance member. None of that is your fault it's all on me and at this rate I'm just going to drag you down with me."

"I never like ROOT anyway." Gaara said, almost thoughtfully. "They spend far too much time sneaking around manipulating people into doing whatever they want." He gave Sasuke a sharp look "I won't turn you in."

"Then what else is there?" Sasuke said and he clenched his fists tightly by his sides before saying the one thing he really wanted to, the thing that had been lurking at the back of his mind for a long time it seemed. And besides, he might as well go all in and see what Gaara did so he continued. "Because I don't feel like I can do this anymore."

* * *

><p>Sakura woke up in pain, but surprisingly it wasn't too bad, just a dull ache in all her wounds and stiff limbs.<p>

"You're awake" She looked round and saw Tsunade sitting by the bed.

"What-?" Sakura started and then she sat up quickly. "Those two were-"

"Sakura you need to rest" Tsunade cut in gently. "You've been through a lot and you need to get your strength back." Sakura nodded slowly and allowed Tsunade to ease her back so she was lying down again. The man who rescued her flashed momentarily through her thoughts. He had said she must know why those ROOT operatives had targeted her, why they though she was under some protection but right now she still couldn't think of anything. Except, she realised as she drifted off again, no one hurried towards and ANBU interrogation. Surely it was common practise to look the other way, to close the shutters and pretend you never heard or saw anything. Shizune and Tsunade had come out to get her and Shizune hadn't been surprised to see the state she was in. Had they been trying to rescue her or was that wishful thinking. And if it wasn't then why?

She couldn't think, couldn't consider whether there was some darker purpose to all of this. That Tsunade and Shizune were part of something much deeper instead of just being the head of the village and her assistant and above all Sakura's teachers and friends. People she had come to depend on even more now Naruto had vanished.

Then Sakura remembered something that comforted her as she drifted off into blackness again. They had said that someone had left probably to join the Resistance. Naruto hadn't been taken away and he was stubborn enough to probably still be alive. She might not ever see him again but even if he had left her she hoped he was doing what felt right to him. That he had found a way to do good in a much grander scale than he could ever do if he stayed in Konoha.

And with that final thought Sakura welcomed the blackness.

* * *

><p>"So what do you suggest?" Gaara asked sombrely. "It's not like you can just quit or walk away?" Sasuke shrugged helplessly.<p>

"I don't know." He gave Gaara a tight smile. "Any suggestions?"

"Death." Gaara said without hesitation, "the only way out for you is to die." Sasuke felt himself tense up at Gaara's words but did his best to show no visible signs of his unease.

"I never thought you were the dramatic type" Sasuke said calmly.

"It makes sense," Gaara continued. "If you try to run they'll only hunt you down and they won't give up and they'll send team after team after you until you're confirmed death or imprisoned. You said you didn't think you'd be able to fake this job for long so what other option is there except to make them think we're dead."

Sasuke looked up sharply. There were two things of interest in that statement, the first was obviously that Gaara wasn't planning to try and execute a mercy killing here if the goal was to only make the ANBU commanders _think_ they were dead. But it was the second thing that Sasuke latched onto first, it seemed the most manageable one for now.

"_We're?"_Sasuke said eventually.

"You think I'd leave my partner even now?" Gaara asked and Sasuke's mind reeled, was Gaara actually hurt that he'd consider doing it without him? And then he realised that after all the lines they'd crossed together. All the comments all the things they'd let slide with each other and those things they'd seen other people do in the towns and cities they'd passed through that were technically illegal. They had all bonded them together in a way that had become a pretty solid friendship without either of them knowing or actively seeking it out. That night at Kurenai's had proved that and even now Gaara was willing to destroy the good career in ANBU he had been forging for himself for Sasuke.

"But you don't mind what we do, you're not like me" Sasuke exclaimed.

"I've never known anything else so of course I'm fine with it." Gaara shrugged. "I've been used as a tool my entire life and the only time people have seemed to care about me was when I was with you of all people, the bastard that managed to beat me in a fight and end my flawless record." Sasuke grimaced slightly, apparently that was still a sore point, "and that night with that woman, Kurenai, someone who freely told us she was once part of the Resistance showed me more kindness than my own people. Even I know there's something not right there.

"Besides" Gaara continues almost happily, "If I let you walk away now I'll never be able to even the score and beat you in a fight, and next time, I promise you you'll be the one walking away with bandages on." And with that final threat suddenly everything seemed a lot more right. Tender moments with Gaara were always few and far between and Sasuke was happier with it that way, it made them both uncomfortable.

"And survival will be more likely with someone to watch my back." Sasuke said and it was the closest he would go to a 'thank you' or an 'I'll be happy to have you with me' and they both knew it. Gaara nodded solemnly. "We'll need something good, if we're going to be presented as dead. There'll have to be actual bodies."

"I know" Gaara said simply, "And we'll have to make sure they can't be recognised if we want to be considered among them." Sasuke nodded slowly.

"At least that's one good thing about ANBU" He said dryly. "We all have to carry I.D. to identify ourselves to others."  
>"Well then," Gaara said and he motioned to Sasuke to leave. Sasuke still hesitated.<p>

"Are you sure?" He felt compelled to ask and Gaara gave him a quizzical look.

"Am I sure I want to leave here? Yes, it won't do us any good being found near some remains no matter how well you've cremated them."

"You know that's not what I meant." Sasuke said. "Are you sure you want to throw everything away for what? Someone you admittedly don't know that well?"

"What's the alternative? I let you beat me unconscious and then we go separately on our merry way? You think they'd let that happen?"

"You can't turn your back on everything for something you're not sure about." Sasuke said firmly.

"And you're sure about this are you?" Gaara said almost incredulously. "You want to be hunted down for the rest of your life, hated by everyone for first hunting this so-called Resistance and then walking out on ANBU neither of those two sides can help you and it's not like any civilians would be anyway helpful to you. And you're leaving on a whim?" Sasuke swallowed, he had to admit Gaara was painting a bleak picture.

"It's not a whim." He continued doggedly. "It's something I've always thought. I've never liked this, not like you, I just can't pretend that everything's okay anymore." Gaara clenched his fist.

"The only reason I can do this is because I've never known anything else. At least you know you had a family whatever it might be costing you. If you leave me behind I'll be the one assigned to hunting you because I know how you work and how you think. I might not know much else about you but I do know those things, and then what, we'll be forced to go against each other until one of us wins and I already told you I'm not planning on losing my next fight to you." Gaara said firmly. "And I don't want to have to fight you that way when you're the only person I have in my life. Whatever they say about teamwork and ANBU -" Gaara shook his head slightly "You're the only comrade I have." He added firmly.

Sasuke briefly wondered if Gaara was deliberately manipulating him so he'd have no choice to go together. But then, he reflected, there would be no point to that because there was no real benefit to Gaara leaving the only thing familiar to him to be stuck running from everyone with no one to trust of turn to for help except each other. It wasn't that Gaara was much of a social butterfly, in fact his social interactions bordered more towards hermit than anything else but this kind of isolation was something else completely.

Sasuke chuckled slightly.

"You just said you'd commit treason for me I'd say we were more than just comrades." He said dryly.

"What then?" Gaara said.

"After everything?" Sasuke said thoughtfully, "Friends I guess."

It was a strange word to the both of them but it seemed to work.

* * *

><p>When Sakura woke up again it was dark and this time it was Shizune next to her.<p>

"You did well." Shizune said softly when she realised Sakura was awake. And this time Sakura was allowed to sit up as well even though she still winced slightly when she did it the pain that seemed to be in all her limbs was less acute this time.

"I didn't do anything." Sakura protested weakly, she had wanted it to come out stronger than that but she just sounded bitter.

"You survived Sakura, that's all that matters." Shizune said kindly.

"But it doesn't feel that way." Sakura said despondently.

"Sakura as long as you didn't give into them then you did well, you won." Shizune said encouragingly.

"That's just it. I didn't win anything, they would have killed me if no one interfered." She clenched her fists in her lap. Shizune frowned.

"They?" She asked. "Sakura there was only one person there and they vanished once they had an audience." Sakura shook her head, tears prickling the corners of her eyes.

"That person never hurt me" Sakura said looking down at the bandages covering her arms, "he stopped two ANBU agents from hurting me." Shizune laid a hand over her arm carefully.

"Are you sure?" She asked carefully. "Maybe you wanted to believe that something happened like that so you don't-"

"It happened." Sakura interrupted. "I didn't make it up. He called them ROOT members. Could I have invented something like that?" Her chin stuck out stubbornly and Shizune gave her a small smile.

"I suppose not." She agreed. "You should get some rest." She added after a moments silence and Sakura lay down again, closing her eyes and turning away from Shizune but she didn't fall asleep.

Instead she listened as Shizune got up quietly and left the room, then she heard voices.

"How is she?" Tsunade asked.

"As well as can be expected" Shizune answered, "She'll recover from this in time and there won't be a mark on her. Not one you can see anyway."

"What was that last bit about?" Tsunade asked and Sakura realised that she had been listening in to her conversation with Shizune.

"That's what's worrying me." Shizune said. "She said someone saved her."

"You think she's imagining things?" Sakura stiffened at that, she knew it was close to impossible for a benevolent stranger to protect her from ANBU but she wasn't stupid enough to try and invent someone to make herself feel better. She thought she'd convinced Shizune of that but she supposed here she'd get her real answer as to whether Shizune had just been humouring her or not. The answer was surprising in more than one way.

"No, that's what worries me." Shizune sighed. "She mentioned ROOT and no one here's ever heard of them before. She must have got it from somewhere and I don't think ROOT agents are in the habit of announcing their division in ANBU."

"No they always were a secretive bunch." Tsunade said and Sakura was surprised at the venom in her words.

"Which means" Shizune continued, "That there was someone else here, someone no one noticed who fought on par and maybe even beat ROOT and then they what vanished?" He voice rose slightly at the end of that and Tsunade made a sharp hushing noise.

"What would someone like that want with Sakura?" Tsunade asked finally.

"I don't know it's not like she knows anything" Shizune muttered and at this Sakura started straining her ears, maybe this was what that man had been talking about was there a reason she had been targeted, why those ROOT members thought she was being protected?

"Unless it wasn't about her" Shizune continued, "Maybe it was about you, because she's your apprentice and they found out-"

"No" Tsunade cut her off. "We've been too careful for that and we're not moving again, we've been here for years and I won't leave these people."

"They must have thought she knew something." Shizune insisted.

"Then we'll ask her."

"What?"

"Not like that, we'll just ask Sakura what they said to her." Tsunade elaborate and then she made a thoughtful noise "and maybe about whoever supposedly rescued her and see if we can figure out what their agenda was too."

There were footsteps as they moved away and Sakura frowned. Her mind working furiously it looked there _was_ more going on than she originally thought in her sleepy little village. Although they knew that not everyone was as they seemed, it was something everyone learnt young, that anyone could be ANBU or an informant, anyone could be the reason you were taken away with no moment's notice and to watch what you say.

But now it looked like everyone had a hidden agenda; Naruto had left mysteriously to join the Resistance and had maybe even met them before that, neither Tsunade or Shizune were what they had seemed to be the past ten years of Sakura's life. That team from ANBU had thought she knew something but now Sakura realised that she knew very little about anything and was she so stupid to think that maybe the man who had so ruthlessly killed that ANBU team was the only person that had been completely honest with her for a while.

Sakura's world had turned on its head and she hated it.


	14. Chapter 14

Sometimes, even in a place like Fire Country, things can run smoothly for people for a time. Or perhaps it was because everything was so tightly controlled that things could run like a well oiled machine each cog well placed and doing its job.

Although things were still difficult there were times when life could become easier for a few moments. And it was in one of those times, as the citizens of Konoha began to settle down, no longer watching Sakura so carefully they began to move on with their lives although Sakura could still see them all trying to avoid contact with her after what had become known in the minds of most people as 'The Incident'.

It was a strange thing for Sakura to experience. She had always been outgoing and now all the people she had known since the day she was born, the friends she had grown up with, no longer smiled or even dared to make eye contact with her. It had become as if they believed that her presence in Konoha was a poison on the rest of then and that any further association would automatically label them with the same criminality Sakura had been interrogated for.

Sakura could see it sometimes, the fear of what she could bring to their village. People quite rightly thought that if ANBU had come for her once and for some mysterious reason let her go they wondered if there was a deeper meaning, a more serious agenda going on that they weren't privy to but it seemed to be surrounding Sakura. Whether she had turned informant to save her own life or since Naruto had seemingly been taken and then ANBU had come for Sakura without even having to ask they could deduce that something strange was going on and they wanted no part of it. By keeping their heads down and waiting for it would pass them by they hoped that they could survive this.

However, at times Sakura could also see the guilt in their eyes when they stole glances at her. They knew that Sakura had gone through so much and none of them had made a move to help her, or comfort her in the aftermath. The only people Sakura was able to hold conversations with now were her parents, Tsunade and Shizune and it felt lonelier than she thought she could be after losing Naruto.

Sakura recovered from her wounds quickly with the help of all Tsunade's salves and herbs, and although she had to tell Tsunade and Shizune some of what happened the night she was attacked she kept it to a bare minimum and tried to avoid any other conversations about it. It felt strange talking about it and now she remembered that night with an almost surreal quality to it. She found herself lying and feigning confusion, when Shizune broached the subject that she had first claimed that someone had saved her, and surprisingly that was something that wasn't that hard for her to do.

She felt worse for lying to them but it was something she couldn't explain herself and her memories of her maybe rescuer were hazy and hard for Sakura to believe herself. Maybe it _was_ wishful thinking and blood loss that had conjured up a mysterious rescuer but that still left many things unexplained, even if the ROOT agents had left instead of being systematically slaughtered and their bodies vanishing, because really how could he have moved them that quickly. It still raised the important question of why Sakura had been left alive. Whether they had somehow got from her what they wanted. And neither solution offered the answer to why Sakura had been considered a viable target in the first place.

Things had become more complicated than ever for Sakura. And although she insisted to her parents that she was fine and, as with everything else, the incident was swept under the table and never spoke off again after a few days. It didn't mean it was forgotten, there were more hushed conversations and glances in Sakura's direction. Her parents hated letting her out of their sight and now if it was dark when she had finished studying under Tsunade Sakura had to stay the night instead of going home. All in all it seemed to Sakura that she should be glad she wasn't given an escort to the patients she had been allowed to look after on her own. As usual in Konoha it was the small things people had to be thankful for.

* * *

><p>Sasuke and Gaara were even more fortunate, if that was the word for it. They had left Konoha, striking out in any direction just to get away from the village and after two weeks they came across an ANBU patrol. There were seven agents and the group had apparently escaped a surprisingly effective attack from the Resistance which had killed their leader Mizuki and they were in a shambolic state after that.<p>

They spent their evening listening to the remaining members cursing the Resistance and the group had never thought twice about the two fellow ANBU agents joining them. After all they had the right identification papers and any extra help they could get would be useful if their ambushers had tried to follow them. No one expected betrayal to happen within the ranks of ANBU. It was practically unheard of. Sure people had cracked from time to time, it was seen as a stressful position and not everyone could put up with it for long but then those people were portrayed as weaker minded and the ANBU training did not breed the potential for betrayal.

The situation was perfect and they never saw it coming. After Sasuke and Gaara destroyed the bodies and left their own identification including the few personal items they carried with them, this time they would go anonymously and completely by the book, they staged it to look like the patrol had been fleeing the Resistance only to be caught up and killed themselves. By leaving their own identification papers Sasuke and Gaara hoped that they would also be included in the body count especially as unfortunately they had messed up the bodies so it would be difficult to do a body count. It was something that the Resistance probably wouldn't be capable of but as Gaara had pointed out it was better for them to be looking for an enemy they already knew existed than a fictitious one. And it wasn't like Danzo needed anymore reasons to persecute the Resistance anyway, so what was one more excuse.

And so things became more settled for a time. Sasuke and Gaara did their best to vanish. They were used to travelling for long periods of time with just the other person but somehow knowing they couldn't easily walk away from each other made things awkward and they lashed out at each other. Even if it was more out of frustration than annoyance, they were used to travelling with some goal in mind but now it felt like they were just aimlessly wandering the country and that was what got to them the most.

They moved silently and slowly across the country and after they got used to the lack of urgency they used to travel with on their missions and eventually it became almost peaceful. But that was only for a moment before it became boring and they realised that neither of them would be happy with just running and doing nothing. Even if people weren't sent out to find them, and they had successfully fooled ANBU and its leaders, they were so used to doing something and fighting against something that to do nothing felt almost unnatural.

Gaara especially hated doing nothing and although he couldn't really resent Sasuke for it as he had been given plenty of opportunities not to join his former ANBU partner he still used it as a reason to lash out from time to time, and it was something Sasuke never argued back about so he felt some small satisfaction in winning.

Sometimes, Gaara teased Sasuke about whether he was going to go round rescuing more people from ANBU and that in itself showed just how far they'd come that Gaara would actually tease him about something now. Although that passing comment stuck with Sasuke and he began to wonder what it was he actually believed in enough to fight for. What it had been that made him intervene on behalf of the girl. She had brought out those long put aside memories of before ANBU, memories that had faded until Sasuke could barely remember them and he had never wanted to try to before. But maybe now it was the time to take them out, brush off the cobwebs and really think about things.

After all, they had all the time they needed for such things now.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Sakura found herself growing used to lying to her friends and family. She insisted she was fine, that there was nothing to worry about, and that she wasn't having nightmares or any other dreams about that night. She was fine with the few scars that Tsunade hadn't been able to completely heal, she said, and that she hadn't given anymore thought to the person she had first thought had appeared and intervened on her behalf. Sakura said she must have been confused, mixed up, and after everything they surmised had happened and the blood loss no one questioned on it especially as she said she wanted to put it all behind her and not think about that night again.<p>

They weren't all complete lies. Sakura liked to believe she was fine, and she really didn't want to be still dwelling on what had happened anymore than she had to, but there _were_ nightmares and try as she might Sakura could never quite push everything from her mind. She kept thinking about the person who they said left to meet with the Resistance. Naruto. It _had_ to be Naruto as no one else had gone from Konoha and that filled her with a strange sense of pride and relief that Naruto might be safe somehow.

It had helped Sakura to make sense of Naruto's behaviour, his constant following her and chatter in the past weeks before he vanished and when he asked her trusting people and whether he should do it must have been around the time he had met the Resistance. Which of course meant that they had been here in Konoha, and that they were in fact real. She felt relieved and happy that Naruto had obviously come to a decision about his life and she could almost forgive him for not telling her. Apparently he had made the leap to trust them but not her and that stung a little.

She also kept thinking about the man who saved her. She knew he had been real. The encounter had been far too strange, too brutal, to be anything that her mind could come up with.

Sakura thought about him more than she probably should to the point where at times her savour came to rescue her was almost romanticised in her head. Other times she remembered it more realistically when a stranger who managed to easily best two trained ANBU agents, who had tortured her so casually, before he had turned to her, blood visible on his clothes, and as she could hope for was that he would not turn on her as she'd not stand a chance against him.

Was he part of the Resistance? The whispers she had heard about them cast them as heroic figures but maybe the real group were just as bad as ANBU. Especially as he had callously snapped both of the man's arms before turning round to kill both of them it made her wonder if they were just as bad as the people they were supposedly liberating them from. But she couldn't say for sure as everything had happened so quickly.

Despite all her previous fears for Naruto, that was the first time Sakura was truly scared. Standing there until all she could feel or hear was the ANBU team and man in front of her and the pounding of blood in her ears. She felt that there was something so much bigger than her out there and that there was nothing she could do that could make a difference in that world. She used to like to think that she could make a small different to people by healing and even on Tsunade's insistence they made regular checkups on some people even if it was just to chat and keep them company in they were laid up for a while and unable to go anywhere.

But now Sakura just felt a bit helpless, as if in the grand scheme of things she could make no difference to anyone or anything. She knew Tsunade believed in making small differences to people's lives. That even the tiniest act of kindness could make a world of difference to the person given it but now Sakura had seen how ruthless ANBU were she wasn't so sure. Even her rescuer seemed to have some agenda and she wasn't sure what else he would have asked her if Shizune hadn't come running up.

And that was another thing, why would a man, who had so capably dealt with not one but two ANBU agents, flee when he had heard Shizune come running round the corner. The entire thing got stranger the more she thought about it and she wasn't sure what she wanted to do about it, smiling and shrugging the whole thing of seemed impossible but that was what everyone, her parents, Tsunade and Shizune, wanted her to do, just like she had been expected to do with Naruto's disappearance.

Sakura felt frustrated and it seemed as if the only person who would be able to have answers for her was either dead, as those two ROOT members believed something about her that caused some of this, or missing, and would she ever see that man again, or even recognise him if she did as it had been dark and as everyone said she was probably in shock and making parts of it up to help make sense of it.

Her parents thought that her attackers had luckily ran off when Shizune and Tsunade approached and who could say they were wrong. Sakura had no way of proving someone else had been there and even helped her. He had vanished just as quickly as he had appeared and although there had been extra blood on the ground it could easily be written off as hers and the bodies of the two ANBU had vanished along with her rescuer.

* * *

><p>Weeks passed and Sasuke and Gaara found that now they were hurrying from place to place, blinkered by their missions, they saw a lot more of the country and they found that that wasn't necessarily a good thing. It was the first time they both really saw the desperation in people that they usually were able to avoid seeing.<p>

Gaara followed Sasuke through the different streets and dirt paths as they moved through towns and country and after weeks and weeks of walking and being faced with the reality of how bad things were he often found that he had an odd prickling in his stomach and it took Gaara a little while longer to identify that with feeling uncomfortable by what he saw.

He looked at Sasuke's impassive expression but by then he knew not to judge his friend's, still a strange word to him, his friend's feelings by what was displayed on his face. Like him, Sasuke had learnt to keep a mask up and hide any doubts or ill feelings he may have had to keep going for their duties and responsibilities to ANBU.

But without that, without ANBU, maybe it was acceptable to feel something about all this. To form an opinion. It was just that Gaara wasn't quite sure how to go about doing that. He had always gone along with what he was told, never thinking about what it meant for anyone or what he even thought about it himself. Gaara just followed what he was told without question and it was only now that he began to wonder about the repercussions of what he had done.

Now after he had been faced with Kurenai who had been directly impacted by ANBU's actions he had felt the first stirring of something in the pit of his stomach, something he was able to later identify as guilt and he didn't like feeling it. There was a part of Gaara that wondered if this was how Sasuke usually felt and another part that didn't want to know because if this was what Sasuke usually went through then it wasn't how Gaara wanted to do things from now on and he wasn't sure he wanted to broach this conversation with Sasuke.

As it happened he didn't have to. Sasuke started it himself.

"Are you alright?" Sasuke asked one day as they aimlessly walked to, well anywhere really, neither of them had any particular direction in mind or were using any map.

"Why wouldn't I?" Gaara asked woodenly. Sasuke gave him a sharp look.

"You're being quiet."

"We've never been ones for talking much"

"Well something's bothering you anyway I can tell that much" Sasuke said, sounding exasperated. Gaara was quiet for a moment as he thought about what he wanted to say.

"What did you used to think when we were sent on missions?" He asked eventually.

"What?" Sasuke sounded startled.

"Well, you're not like me, and there must be something that being in ANBU never got as you've never wanted to kill people and recently you've even been _saving_ them. So whenever we were sent on assassinations or to bring people into prison you must have been thinking something."

Sasuke sighed.

"It's hard to explain."

"Try." Gaara said and Sasuke stopped walking and looked Gaara dead in the eye.

"Okay" He said slowly. "It was mostly about the people that we'd leave behind."

"Like Kurenai." Gaara said and Sasuke nodded slightly.

"More like the people who are left with no idea what happened to them, the people that never get any answers and will spend the rest of their life wondering what happened." He gave Gaara a long look as if he was weighing him up. "I might as well tell you now, it's not like either of us can walk away from this anymore," he said finally jamming his hands in his pockets. ""My entire family disappeared one night."

Gaara frowned, this was nothing new he had known that Sasuke had been taken into ANBU as a child with his brother after his family had been taken away for questioning, the two brothers being seen as uncorrupted by revolutionary influences yet.

"I came home one night after playing out too late with some friends, I can remember my main worry being that my mother would be so mad at me but I saw them getting dragged off in the distance. My father was struggling, and my mother wasn't moving and she was probably already-" Sasuke broke off and looked away, unable to hold Gaara's gaze anymore before adding flatly. "I overheard the ANBU officer commending Itachi on his swift action in reporting the threat of the Resistance taking root. He's seen so favourably by ANBU and Akatsuki for turning his own parents in."

Gaara stared.

"I didn't know what was going on until much later and after the missions started it was hard not to see my parents in these people and all the children we left behind was just, I don't know, after a while even after all we were taught about doing this for the greater good to help Fire Country it just didn't feel like we were doing anything good at all."

"And Konoha was what?" Gaara asked slowly, "some reminder of home?" Sasuke gave him an odd smile.

"It was home."


End file.
